Water levels

[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.