Water levels

[SimpleTL]

Does anyone know about the current water levels? Trying to decide if we should take one more venture out tomorrow as it’s going to be in the 70s.


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[joey2665]

Originally Posted by SimpleTL

Does anyone know about the current water levels? Trying to decide if we should take one more venture out tomorrow as it’s going to be in the 70s.


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This was last weekend




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[ishoot308]

Originally Posted by SimpleTL

Does anyone know about the current water levels? Trying to decide if we should take one more venture out tomorrow as it’s going to be in the 70s.


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It is down exactly 21.96” from full pool.

Dan

[SimpleTL]

Wow! Time to winterize then. Thank you.


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[thinkxingu]

Almost 22" is crazy! Given that Sunday and Monday look chilly, might be calling it a season for Jettie One!

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[ishoot308]

Originally Posted by thinkxingu

Almost 22" is crazy! Given that Sunday and Monday look chilly, might be calling it a season for Jettie One!

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Yup...it’s about 7 1/4” lower than normal autumn height...still not as low as 2016 but dam close!

Dan

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by ishoot308

Yup...it’s about 7 1/4” lower than normal autumn height...still not as low as 2016 but dam close!

Dan

It seems so much lower than '16 out there. Maybe the tide is out in the North!

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[steve-on-mark]

When I come out in the spring, the lake is usually level with the bottom of the dock framing...as of yesterday, it's now exactly 24 inches below the framing.

[upthesaukee]

https://www4.des.state.nh.us/rti_data/WEIN3_TABLE.HTML, shows the lake 1.87 ft below full lake, or 1 ft, 10 1/2 inches below full lake.

Dave

[LIforrelaxin]

So I was looking at the DES website just now....

Winnipesaukee has a 2 ft. normal operating band:

Full pool @ 504.32 -- objective to start boating season Memorial day weekend
Low pool @ 502.32 -- objective before snow and ice starts to melt

Currently according to DES lake is at 502.45...

so we are about 23" from full pool "officially"

It also means we need to hope for a few things...
-- the drought needs to end
-- We get a good snow pack over the winter
-- spring rains compensate for what the snow pack from the winter is not able to deliver to bring us back up to full pond.

I think it is very probable that we will get lower then we did in 2016, where it bottom out at 502.26.... Unless we start to get some rain.... All the lakes are getting very low, which means there isn't much water to get to flow into Winnipesaukee....In 2016, hadn't had a season long drought and the infeeds into the lake, where still able to supply water.

[chaseisland]

Need to get to full pool quickly before the town increases the property tax due to the additional acreage I've acquired.

[Patofnaud]

Ok that was actually funny. You owe me one coffeeless keyboard.

[Descant]

Originally Posted by chaseisland

Need to get to full pool quickly before the town increases the property tax due to the additional acreage I've acquired.

File for an abatement because your dock doesn't reach the lake.

[ApS]

In times of drought in Florida, it's necessary (at some lakes) to mow around the dock.

[MotorHead]

https://www.boston.com/weather/weath...-massachusetts

So, how does this translate into lake water level next spring?

[joey2665]

Originally Posted by MotorHead

https://www.boston.com/weather/weath...-massachusetts

So, how does this translate into lake water level next spring?

It’s doesn’t because NOAA in a nutshell said it had no idea what the expected precipitation is for the northeast this winter.


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[Descant]

I'm OK with a 2 foot band of full and low water BUT
It ought to be full on August 1 and low in December. I understand the difficulties, but major SNAFU in 2016 and again in 2020 is too frequent. It is bad enough that the lakes region economy suffers from Covid, but sending everybody elsewhere due to low water is a major problem for many businesses as well as local residents.

[Lakegeezer]

Over 2" of rain has fallen since yesterday (10/17) and the lake is up 1.3 inches in 24 hours. That is a LOT of water! Throughout the day, more nutrient rich runoff will bring up the level even more, but not enough to bring us back to normal.

[winterh]

Originally Posted by Lakegeezer

Over 2" of rain has fallen since yesterday (10/17) and the lake is up 1.3 inches in 24 hours. That is a LOT of water! Throughout the day, more nutrient rich runoff will bring up the level even more, but not enough to bring us back to normal.

Does a large amount of water quickly refilling the lake help the water quality by flushing out the bad stuff or does it ultimately hurt the water quality by bringing runoff?

[Biggd]

Originally Posted by winterh

Does a large amount of water quickly refilling the lake help the water quality by flushing out the bad stuff or does it ultimately hurt the water quality by bringing runoff?

I think heavy rain hurts water quality but water quality is hurt by drought conditions also.
In a perfect world occasional moderate rain is what's needed but we can't control the weather.

[Merrymeeting]

Originally Posted by winterh

Does a large amount of water quickly refilling the lake help the water quality by flushing out the bad stuff or does it ultimately hurt the water quality by bringing runoff?

Water clarity has been amazing for the last month or so, mostly due to lack of runoff. As has been noted, heavy rain washes more than just water into the lakes and you can see it in the water clarity.

I've been on one of the lakes water monitoring teams for some time, and the secchi disk readings always show shallower visibility after a storm (A secchi disk is a patterned disk that is lowered into the water until it can't be seen anymore. The clearer the water, the deeper the reading).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secchi...%20the%20water.

We've been getting some of the deepest readings I can remember up until the latest storms.

[bbatch]

Can someone explain to me (and other bloggers) the function of the dam in Lakeport and its influence on lake level (Winnipesaukee). It has been my understanding that lake level is almost entirely controlled by raising and lowering dam (spillway) height in Lakeport: In spring, in times of heavy rain or snow runoff, the dam is raised to prevent flooding of the Merrimack river. As a result, the lake can go over-full. In the fall, height is intentionally lowered to provide a reservoir for spring runoff. Some years, when its exceptionally dry, the height has to be lowered faster than usual to keep sufficient water flowing into the Merrimack river. In other words, the operators of the Lakeport dam (EPA?) have the power and means to keep the level in Winnipesaukee at a high enough level not to upset boaters. However, this could only be done at the expense of those industries downstream that require sufficient water flow. The latter is obviously the priority (over a few damaged stern drives and impellers). Is what I wrote above even half right?

[Lakegeezer]

The dam operator can regulate the water, but only if there is water to regulate. The yearly graphic from DES shows that since the Spring, the outflow from the dam was pretty much minimum. They aren't allowed to shut it off completely or several other lakes downstream would suffer.

I don't think we can legitimately complain about the dam operator's decisions. It was a minimum since the middle of May, with a few increases when rain's came. The precipitation was normal through mid-May and the water levels were within normal until late August. In hindsight, the releases in mid-July were probably a mistake, but the data supported it at the time.

It was a low rain year and we're still more than 10% lower than normal. Maybe things will average out with a big snow year and then we'll be able to complain about the lake too high next Spring.

[Descant]

Originally Posted by bbatch

Can someone explain to me (and other bloggers) the function of the dam in Lakeport and its influence on lake level (Winnipesaukee). It has been my understanding that lake level is almost entirely controlled by raising and lowering dam (spillway) height in Lakeport: In spring, in times of heavy rain or snow runoff, the dam is raised to prevent flooding of the Merrimack river. As a result, the lake can go over-full. In the fall, height is intentionally lowered to provide a reservoir for spring runoff. Some years, when its exceptionally dry, the height has to be lowered faster than usual to keep sufficient water flowing into the Merrimack river. In other words, the operators of the Lakeport dam (EPA?) have the power and means to keep the level in Winnipesaukee at a high enough level not to upset boaters. However, this could only be done at the expense of those industries downstream that require sufficient water flow. The latter is obviously the priority (over a few damaged stern drives and impellers). Is what I wrote above even half right?

I think you're mostly right. It's NH DES, (not US EPA) Dam Bureau that is responsible for controlling, inspecting, maintaining, permitting hundreds of dams both privately owned and state owned. The rivers are seen as a system for flood control, for example, and the impact of raising or lowering a single dam must be integrated with upstream and downstream needs. It can be pretty complex with a dash of guess work too. Over the last 20+ years, "in-stream flow" rules have been developed to consider needs for agriculture, irrigation (golf courses), fish and wildlife, recreation, etc. DES may be able to supply a speaker for your group of lake association.

[fatlazyless]

2.3 inches of rain fall is a big rain, and that's what the weather page here says has fallen today, Saturday October 17, so will be interesting to see how much the lake level rises in the next day or two, or three.

Probably, the land that surrounds the lake is very dry and will absorb a lot of rainfall before it sheds or drains down hill into the big lake.

2.3-inches of rain recorded at Laconia Airport on Oct 17, 2020; so when was the previous day which had a larger amount? How long ago was that?

THE ANSWER: To find an amount greater than 2.3-inches of rain, you have to go all the way back to August 6, 1974 ...... about 46-years ago ...... ha-ha-ha ..... just kidding here ...... have no clue ..... anybody know for real? .....

[Lakegeezer]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

..... anybody know for real? .....

As it turns out, NOAA has a web site that lets you look up historical weather information for free. Going back to 1994 (26 years), we've had:
1 event with over 5" (10/8/2005)
1 event with over 4" (10/21/1996)
11 events with over 3" (most recent 10/25/2017)
30 events with over 2"

[TiltonBB]

As many have noticed the runoff in the spring combined with excess rainfall result in the need to increase the flow at the Lakeport Dam. When that happens, the current in the Weirs Channel increases substantially. That creates a boat safety problem, especially near the bridge because when the Channel narrows the water speeds up even more. Sometimes Thurston's customers as well as people docking and travelling in that area find the current challenging.

Several years ago I called DES to make the suggestion that they increase the outflow between 9 PM and 8 AM when boating activity was very low and cut it down during the day. They told me that was not possible because they only work days. Hmmmm.......

[Descant]

Originally Posted by TiltonBB

...
Several years ago I called DES to make the suggestion that they increase the outflow between 9 PM and 8 AM when boating activity was very low and cut it down during the day. They told me that was not possible because they only work days. Hmmmm.......

All the valves, flow rates etc at our local wastewater treatment faculty are controlled electronically. The main control room looks like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. At night and on weekends a supervisor takes a laptop home to monitor and make changes if there is a need. Think of all the things that we now control from our phones. The Dam Bureau needs an app for that. Good project for Laconia HS physics class.