Water Level now Below Normal

[Resident 2B]

I just visited the Dam Bureau web site and I noticed the flow at Lakeport was down to 230 CFS. Looking at the operational information I found the following message:

The discharge at Lakeport Dam (Lake Winnipesaukee) is approx. 230 cfs today. The level
of Lake Winnipesaukee is nearly 502.91, which is just about 2 inches below the normal
water level for this time of year.

We have finally recovered from the rains and floods of last October. Another great job by the folks that work the dams!

Hopefully, we will start to get a bit of rain, mid-week only of course, so that the lake can build to summer levels. There is not much inflow due to the lack of snow on the ground.

R2B

[Steveo]

I took a drive up to the lake yesterday and notice how very low it is. It is at fall levels. My estimates (against normal levels as sighted on my dock) is about 2 feet below normal levels. I also noticed none of the usual stream run offs coming in to the lake from the mountains; they were just trickles. Very little snow, 2nd dryest March in history certainly didn't help. I actually am hoping for rain or I won't be able to get my boat into my dock

[Paugus Bay Resident]

Hopefully, we will start to get a bit of rain, mid-week only of course

Hey watch the mid-week stuff. A lot of us here do our boating mid-week

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Paugus Bay Resident

Hey watch the mid-week stuff. A lot of us here do our boating mid-week

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh.....It's the best kept secret on the lake .

[Resident 2B]

My mid-week comment was to keep the masses happy. I'm retired and I know how great it is to be at the lake during mid-week. It is like weekends 25 years ago.

Not to be knocking the weekends. They are great as well, but they are much different than mid-weeks.

Anyway, we need the rain or many of us will not be able to get the boats to or from the docks. Perhaps rain from midnight to dawn will be the best timing.

Sorry star-gazers!

R2B

[Mee-n-Mac]

Originally Posted by Steveo

I took a drive up to the lake yesterday and notice how very low it is. It is at fall levels. My estimates (against normal levels as sighted on my dock) is about 2 feet below normal levels. I also noticed none of the usual stream run offs coming in to the lake from the mountains; they were just trickles. Very little snow, 2nd dryest March in history certainly didn't help. I actually am hoping for rain or I won't be able to get my boat into my dock

While you're correct that the lake is at typical fall level, that's normal for this time of year. We're maybe 1-2" below average but we're ahead of the level for this date for the last few years. The first few weeks of April is when it fills up fast. I agree we probably don't have the normal snow pack so extra rain may be needed but then again if them dam guys predict the inflow correctly, and if we get just average rainfall levels, all they have to do is close the dam up a bit to raise the lake on schedule. I tried to make some sense of the snowpack levels, compared to normal, but didn't have much time or luck. Perhaps someone else can comment on how to interpret the data which I think is here ....
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/nerfc/snow.shtml

[Steveo]

I agree with you that the level is probably normal and that it usually fills back up first 2 weeks in April. My concern is that there is no real snow pack since there was way below normal snow this year. Also the run offs from the mountains are trickles when they are usually roaring at this time of year. We certainly have had very wet Springs in the past, I just never prayed for them before like this year.

[Grant]

The snowfall deficit is strange, especially when you consider that Mount Washington was a good 60 inches above normal this year as of March 1. Then again, Washington's weather is extreme.

From one extreme to another -- it seems like just a few weeks ago (November, actually) we were lamenting the incredible fall rains, the insanely high fall Lake level, and the damage caused by winds churning up the high water.

[KEEPER]

OK, if half of you are worried about not getting full by June 1st and half of you aren't then I should feel good right? For some reason, though, I don't, and frankly, I never do until the lake is where it should be. Over the last 2 months we've measured a grand total of 3.48 inches of precip. Here are the numbers since January 1st:
Actual Average
January 3.89 3.34
February 2.16 2.92
March 1.32 3.61
Total 1st quarter 7.37 9.87

Our deficit is just 2.5 inches for the year, but reference (and correct it is) to the lack of snowpack gets to the root of the problem. Snowmelt and spring rains usually work together to create the normal spikes in inflow that we use to bring the lake up. As these flows come into the lake we adjust discharge at Lakeport Dam as needed to keep the lake where we believe is appropriate for the time of year and the prevelant watershed conditions. We've known the snowpack was slight as we've been actively measuring it throughout the winter.

The fact is, that even without much of a snowpack, we can refill with the runoff from average precipitation by cutting way back at Lakeport. It is very unusual to have to go to minimum flow conditions in the early months of the year, but we've been at min. flows there since the 22nd of this month and the lake has responded by rising 1/4 inch - not as much as I'd like to see. We need rain, and it isn't unreasonable to assume that we'll get it as weather patterns shift and more of the storms that have been skirting off to our south find their way to us. In our favor, we still have either frozen ground or fairly saturated ground conditions so any rain that does fall should produce meaningful runoff.

[ITD]

You know what they say, if you don't like the weather around here, wait a minute. Still very early in the season, we know Keeper is doing what he can to keep the lake at the proper level. Let's hope mother nature cooperates (before the summer, not during).

[Cal]

I've seen it too many years to worry about it. The keepers and Mother Nature usually work it out

[Weirs guy]

And that folks, is why they call them "averages".

[upthesaukee]

Thanks a lot to you, Keeper, for posting here and giving the facts and logic behind controlling the outflow and monitoring the inflow to try to keep the lake at an optimum level. It certainly helps to eliminate conjecture, which may seem to be correct when in fact it is actually on the wrong side of being right.

Thanks for taking the time to keep us straight.

[RI Swamp Yankee]

Originally Posted by ITD

... we know Keeper is doing what he can to keep the lake at the proper level. Let's hope mother nature cooperates...

It must be tough to second guess mother nature. I don't envy Keeper's job trying to stay ahead of the unknown.

[Airwaves]

Keeper
I have a question and it's not a smart alec question, I really don't know.

When they drop the water in the Merrimack River in Lowell to do repair work on the dam there, how is it done? Do you hold it back at the lake or does it happen somewhere else and if so where?