Water Levels on L.O.

[brucehookedup]

I know are snow depth was down, very little rain, down 4 to 5" of precipitation. Come on, they can adjust that with the outflow at massena dam. This is crazy stupid lows that i have never seen, or anybody else. Docks, launches, bays, super low water levels. I hear 11" by April 2nd. That would be next to impossible with this short window. Any explanations, theories ?? Let's hear them. Meanwhile i am going to buy stock in Michigan Wheel. ( they sell props )

[jimski2]

Probably with shipping returned to the St. Lawrence River system the gates on the power dams maybe will be closed some to return the Lake Ontario to normal levels. Amazing they never admitted this is away to control lake level. I suppose with the high river currents they are afraid a ship could get aground sideways like the Suez Canal deal.

[Legacy]

On 3/26/2021 at 8:39 AM, brucehookedup said:

I know are snow depth was down, very little rain, down 4 to 5" of precipitation. Come on, they can adjust that with the outflow at massena dam. This is crazy stupid lows that i have never seen, or anybody else. Docks, launches, bays, super low water levels. I hear 11" by April 2nd. That would be next to impossible with this short window. Any explanations, theories ?? Let's hear them. Meanwhile i am going to buy stock in Michigan Wheel. ( they sell props )

 

My understanding is its all in effort to keep the possibility of flooding down. We still have record inflows so apparently they are trying to get ahead of it. 

[brucehookedup]

Rob you got to be super shallow at your dock as well. Trying to stay ahead of this is not working out right now, that's for sure. They can send people to the moon but they can't find a happy lake level??

[Gator]

Wasn't the moon landing faked?

[Seaox23]

https://www.lre.usace.army.mil/Missions/Great-Lakes-Information/Great-Lakes-Water-Levels/Water-Level-Forecast/Weekly-Great-Lakes-Water-Levels/ 
This is great site for everything you need to know about Great Lake levels, past, present and forecast. Right now Lake O is about 244 feet, down about 8 inches from long term average. Data goes back 100 years. It is 35 inches lower than the highest monthly avg for March and 21 inches higher than the lowest monthly March average [1935] which is amazing. In both 2017 and 2019 levels exceeded 249 feet which resulted in tremendous shoreline erosion and property damage, especially when the lake starts to churn, which is often. I never want to see that again. Last year was higher than average water levels but not critically high. The lake levels will come back to normal. I hope the outflows from the St Lawrence River can balance precipitation activity across the region. 
I hope the moon landing was not faked. Everything else I have believed in seems to be the target of revisionist history.

 

[Gator]

Ain't that the truth. If we don't remember our mistakes, we're doomed to repeat them, right? So how is all this denial helping? It just avoids the tough conversations by pretending nothing bad ever happened. Crazy.

 

I watched a couple of guys kite surfing in the NE corner of Long Pond this week. They needed to walk a hundred yards out before they were in water up to their knees. I can't even imaging what another two feet less water would look like. 

[brucehookedup]

I usually have 5' under my boat, now 28" that's crazy. Sucking mud when i start up, yay.

[Jimmyi]

I watched a guys trailer go off the ramp at Irondequoit a few days ago.

[spoonfed-1]

On 3/30/2021 at 6:07 AM, brucehookedup said:

I usually have 5' under my boat, now 28" that's crazy. Sucking mud when i start up, yay.

Anybody notice if there has been any rise in the level over the past week or so?

[mudflat]

According to IJC and the Army Corp.:

 

On the 20th they reduced the outflow by 21,900 cubic feet/sec to 260,600 cubic feet/sec

 

Since then the levels have been coming up approx.  1/2 inch/day, about 3 inches total.

 

We need rain!

[Outdoor Lover]

34 minutes ago, mudflat said:

According to IJC and the Army Corp.:

 

On the 20th they reduced the outflow by 21,900 cubic feet/sec to 260,600 cubic feet/sec

 

Since then the levels have been coming up approx.  1/2 inch/day, about 3 inches total.

 

We need rain!

Will 5" of snow work?? LOL.....

[Beards247]

This website does a great job of showing  LO current water levels, changes to outflows and the forecast range based on wet average or dry conditions.

 

According to those charts LO is only 8 inches below average... it sure seems lower than that. Maybe the past 3-4 years of high water has changed my memory.

 

Like @mudflat said, outflows have been cut and the lake has gone up (almost) 3 inches in the last week. Hopefully they can keep that trend going.

 

@Seaox23  thanks for the link. All the great lakes are down.

 

 

[lost a lure]

Where are you getting the 3" in the last week reading?

[Beards247]

29 minutes ago, lost a lure said:

Where are you getting the 3" in the last week reading?

 

It is the difference between water levels March 22 and Mar 28 from the table at the top of this page.

• Water level on Mar 22 was 244.32 feet (bottom left of the table),
• Water level on Mar 28 was 244.52 feet (top left of table)
• Difference of .20 feet, which is just short of 3 inches (.25 would be 3 inches) *

* 12 inches in a foot, so a quarter of that is 3 inches, or .25.

 

If you wanted to see more than a weeks comparison, the interactive graph at the bottom of the page shows this year compared to high low averages along with 2020 and 2019 data.

 

 

 

 

[Fishnut]

Here’s pictures of the oak orchard docks a week ago. Down 3-1/2 feet from last year.


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[Fishnut]

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[brucehookedup]

It has come up maybe 2" in the last 5 days.

[Beards247]

6 hours ago, brucehookedup said:

It has come up maybe 2" in the last 5 days.

 

According to the official measurements, 2.6 inches March 22nd to March 28th. Just under 1/2 inch per day (.43 inches).

 

Be interesting to see how long they keep the LO nozzle pinched for.

[J.D.]

It looks to me like all the upstream lakes are above their average depth for March. Should be plenty water coming our way.

 

 

Ontario is the only lake below average.

 

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by J.D.

[jimski2]

New York's April 1st trout fishing opening showed low stream flows upstate compared to previous years. Do not anticipate high flows this year to raise Lake Ontario from snow melt and rainfall.

[Legacy]

[brucehookedup]

I could be mistaken Rob, but this chart shows me that more is going out the Moses saunders dam than what's coming from the Niagara.

[Gator]

What's the relative contribution of the NIagara compared to other sources of input? Also, there's the evaporation factor on the other side of the scale. Lots of moving pieces. 

 

It's going up. Hopefully steadily and with increasing rate. Keeping fingers and toes crossed.

[Legacy]

40 minutes ago, brucehookedup said:

I could be mistaken Rob, but this chart shows me that more is going out the Moses saunders dam than what's coming from the Niagara.

 

Correct but look at total supply...