Water Level now Below Normal

[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