Category Archives: Weather

Clary Moods

20240608_190203I always marvel at how the character of Clary Lake will change over time. The lake has moods, almost like people do. The moods are reflected in the lighting, the clouds, the wind, the water. Sometimes it’s sad. Sometimes it’s angry, or laughing, or thoughtful. Or mysterious. Margaret and I were sitting on my dock the other evening, watching a storm pass by to the north. We could see rain off in the distance. This storm had just passed over Augusta and was harassing Three Mile Pond in China with wind, rain, and lightning. I always love the way the late afternoon sunlight slips in under an ominous, cloud-filled sky to illuminate the far shore…

20240608_190231

 

A Sunny Winter Day

Clary_cam3 casts a shadow on the lake on this clear, cold, sunny day. I don’t really have anything to say, I was just thinking it was time for a picture. I haven’t seen anyone ice fishing, but I heard someone drilling holes with an ice augur yesterday.

That Was The Week That Was!

after-the-12-18-23-stormIt seems kinda silly now looking back on the post “10 December 2023: Bracing for a Big Storm” and all the concerns we had at that time about potential wind and rain damage after the absolute pounding the State of Maine took on Monday. On Monday they reportedly clocked winds at Pemaquid Point of 105 mph. That’s humming! The wind wasn’t that high here inland, but the wind was still terrifying and plenty strong enough to knock down trees the telephone poles (see above). You’ve no doubt seen the pictures of the Kennebec River overflowing it’s banks and flooding downtown Gardiner, Hallowell, and Augusta and other pictures and videos from around the State showing roads washed out or blocked with down trees and powerlines. We and most everyone else in Midcoast Maine lost power about 8 AM on Monday the 18th and for us here on the south side of Clary Lake, it didn’t return until about 3 PM Thursday afternoon thanks to the broken off pole (pictured above) just into Jefferson on Route 126 which delayed restoration efforts. At the time of this writing on Friday morning there are still 31,000 CMP customers without power, down from a half a million just a couple of days ago. Continue reading →

10 December 2023: Bracing for a Big Storm

20231210_140720The picture above shows Steve Cowles opening the gate in the Clary Lake dam in anticipation of a lot of rain: we’re in for a big storm later tonight and on through tomorrow with heavy rain and high winds. A few days ago it looked like we’d only be grazed by it but as it got closer, it got worse. Right now the prediction is for 50+ mile per hour winds and between 3 and 5 inches of rain. The worst wind is expected downeast. Flood warnings have been issued State-wide through Tuesday. Even with the gate and weir wide open (picture at left) and with the lake down over a foot, overtopping of the dam is likely. With partially frozen and totally saturated ground, runoff is expected to be substantial and because the wind is from the South, power outages are expected. That is not a wind direction trees in Maine are used to it. Continue reading →

UPDATED: 7 December 2023: Clary Lake Is (ALMOST) Iced In!

ice-in-12-7-2023[UPDATE NO. 2] I did get out this morning and can confirm the lake is solidly frozen end to end and side to side. I suspect the open water I saw yesterday over by Duncan Road was due to seepage of 48° groundwater into the lake, it being enough to ward off freezing until last night’s single digit temps. Whether the ice survives next Monday’s warm rainstorm remains to be seen but for now, as of 8 December 2023, Clary Lake is officially frozen over.

[UPDATE] I’m sorry I didn’t go check the lake sooner or I’d have held off on posting this so-called news! There’s a small expanse of open water along the shoreline over in the cove by Duncan Road in front of the French, Vincentsen, and Duncan camps. So while the lake is 99.9999999% frozen over, it’s not 100% frozen over and the meteorological conditions necessary for ice-in have not been met. I’m calling it Almost Ice-in.

An overnight temperature of 9° degrees was enough for Clary Lake to completely freeze over. I’ve only checked the webcams so far, I’ll take a drive around the lake in a while and confirm it is completely frozen over and if it is, I will record today as the initial ice-in date. In any case, I wouldn’t venture out there on foot just yet! Give it a couple of more days and then tentatively test the thickness in various spots. You want a solid 3 inches to walk or skate on. Don’t be foolish.

It also wouldn’t surprise me if it opens up again before finally freezing over for the winter: it is supposed to warm up this weekend and Sunday through Monday a large warm weather system is going to blow through with strong southerly winds and heavy rains. It’s unlikely the ice we see today will survive that.

04 December 2023: First Snow at Clary Lake

I woke up this morning to the first snow this fall on Clary Lake, and a short power outage, offering me an opportunity to test my generator (it worked fine). It sure looks like winter out there, but it’s pretty warm out. I expect this 2+” of new snow will not last. The lake is still open but there has been ice in the coves off and on this past week so it’s clearly getting ready. We’re just waiting for some sustained cold weather for it to freeze up once and for all. It’s going down into the low teens for a few days this week so there’s a good chance the lake will skim over if it remains calm overnight, but I think a solid freeze up is still a few weeks off. Now is the time to think about getting your skates sharpened and the ice boat ready! When there is ice suitable for skating or ice boating, you best be ready to go because it usually doesn’t last long before snow makes an appearance. Continue reading →

October 2023 Water Level Chart Archived

10 Clary-Lake-Water-Level-October-2023I have archived the October 2023 water level chart (above, and at left).  Rainfall for the month once again exceeded normal (a common refrain this year!) keeping the lake level higher than intended, at one point coming within almost an inch of the HWM with water flowing over the dam- unusual in October. By the end of the month however the lake was back down to 3/4 of a foot  below the HWM which is about normal for this date. All told we received 5.36 inches of rain (normal is 4.45 inches) bringing us to 49.6 inches for the year, fully 13.6 inches above normal! Even if rainfall remains normal or below normal for the rest of the year, 2023 will still go down in the record book as an exceedingly wet year. We’ve seen greater-than-average rainfall in 7 of the first 10 months of 2023, and normally the wettest month of the year, November, is about to start. Continue reading →

Our Weather Page Actually Has Weather!

We haven’t had much in the way of current local weather on this website for some time. CLA member Tim Chase has a new Davis Instruments weather station designated Whitefield Village and we’re now hosting it on our Weather page. It displays the current temperature, wind, rain, humidity, and barometric pressure. There’s also a Whitefield Village Weather Summary page which has more information for a more detailed look at local weather.

I’m not sure when Tim installed his weather station but I think it was sometime in January. He therefore missed some of January’s heavy rains. As a result, his precipitation totals and mine won’t agree this year.

There’s a neat WeatherLink app on Google Play you can install on your Android phone which gives you access to loads of weather stations all over the world, in addition the Whitefield Village station. The app provides even more information including historical data. I assume there’s one for iPhones but I haven’t checked.

You’ll also find Whitefield Village weather on the Weather Underground station KMEWHITE15.

14 December 2022: Clary Lake ALMOST but NOT QUITE Iced Over

Almost-ice-in-campicYesterday afternoon Clary appeared to be fully ice covered and I was about to call it, but the bit of snow we received in the night has revealed some open water in the usual spot off the point at the end of Duncan Road, and a seam in the middle of the lake is evident as well, perhaps opened up due to the high wind this morning. In early winter there is often open water off Duncan Point (aka Young’s Point) due to the speed of the current there. We’ll see if the current ice cover will survive the warm and wet coastal storm due to blow through here this coming Friday into Saturday.

We have historical ice-in and ice-out data for Clary Lake going back to 2001. If anyone has data for years prior to 2001 I’d love to hear about it.

Exploring Lake Phenomena: Langmuir Circulation

From time to time I like to highlight different lake phenomena, and today’s high winds and waves are a great opportunity to discuss Langmuir Circulation. The waves today are really stirring up the water, it’s brown and quite turbid and there are long lines of white froth on the water aligned with the wind direction. I’m sure you’ve seen this phenomena before. You can see those lines of froth in the webcam picture at left. Sitting here in my upstairs home office and looking out the window down at the lake, those lines of white froth are very evident. Continue reading →

10 July 2021: Hurricane Elsa Delivers Much Needed Rain [UPDATED]

July 2021 Precipitation as of 7-10-21

On its way up the New England coast yesterday, Hurricane Elsa dropped over 3″ of rain on Clary Lake. While this won’t end our drought, it will go a long ways towards replenishing ground water supplies, and it brought the lake up enough for water to flow over the top of the dam again. For the month of July we’re now at 5.35 inches, well above  the average of 3.54 inches. For the year we’re now only (only?) 4.97 inches short of normal for this date.

water-over-the-dam-7-10-2021_compressed[UPDATE]: As of this morning and for the FIRST TIME this year, the lake level is +0.08 feet ABOVE the High Water Mark having risen 7.08 inches since yesterday morning. Plenty of water flowing over the top of the dam as the picture at left shows. What a treat to have such high water this time of year!

 

25 May 2021: Rough Water on Clary Lake

Early Sunday afternoon on May 23, 2021, a strong cold front blew in from the north. Behind it were high winds that lasted all afternoon and into the night. We took it on the nose on our location on the south shore of Clary Lake. For a while I thought my boat would ride it out OK but it was taking a beating and I decided to move it over into a protected cove… It made for a pretty hairy ride, I wish I’d had the foresight to do it sooner!

Here are a couple of webcam pictures from that afternoon. Continue reading →

25 April 2021: Diminishing ice cover on Maine’s lakes could impact fish populations

Lake Auburn. This picture links to the article.

Here on Clary Lake we haven’t been keeping ice in and ice out records for long enough to see a shortening of the iced-in period. Our records go back to 2001 and in that time, there’s no obvious trend but over significantly longer periods (many decades and longer) it’s clear that Maine winters are gradually becoming milder and anyone who’s lived around here for more than a few years can testify to that fact. This article in the Kennebec Journal discusses some of the impacts of shorter iced-in periods on Maine Lakes.

12 April 2021 PSA: Mind Your Docks!

September 2013 picture of Art Enos’s dock. It just so happens his dock did NOT have floating decking but if it had, it would have floated away!

Despite it being early April, many people have already put in their docks this year, perhaps because the lake is relatively low for this time of year, or they just want to get a jump on the boating season. Like who doesn’t? However, most of the docks I’ve seen are just barely clear of the water. The lake is currently only 0.17 feet (2 inches) below the HWM, much lower than it’s been the past two years on this date. While it’s been relatively dry so far this year, it is not unreasonable to expect significant spring rains at any time. If that happens the lake could easily rise 3-4 inches (or more!) almost overnight and flood the docks. If your dock is of the stationary (not floating) kind and if your decking is of the unattached floating variety, you might want to make sure to attach it to the frame so it doesn’t float away. Zip ties work well for this or use some clothes line or something similar to tie the decking down.

27 December 2020: Clary Lake Opens Up

DSC_6884Clary Lake completely froze over on December 19th, but warm temperatures, high winds, and heavy rain on Christmas Day has melted off most of the ice. There’s still some ice in the coves, especially along the south shore. We’ll make note of this fact on our Ice-in and Ice-out page, but we won’t be changing the 2020 ice-in date.  The lake is already trying to refreeze and probably will skim over again in the next couple of days as overnight temperatures for the next week are expected to be in the low to mid 20’s.  The first week of the new year is looking to be much colder and if we don’t get any snow for a while we should have some good ice for skating!

19 December 2020: Clary Lake Frozen Over

Clary is fully iced over as of December 19th.

After consulting with the two Davids (David Hodsdon and David Knight) we’ve concluded that Clary has finally iced over but it will likely at least partially melt off again on Christmas day as we’re expecting a storm bringing an inch or more of rain with temps in the 50’s. Time will tell! As cold as it’s been this month, I expected the lake to freeze before this but heavy rains at the end of November and beginning of December have resulted in a lot of water moving through the lake and as you know, moving water resists freezing. Also, the addition of lots of rain to the lake raises the temperature if only slightly, and this slows down freezing as well. Continue reading →

24 September 2020: Drought Worsens [UPDATED]

The drought conditions affecting Maine and much of the Northeast are worsening with no relief in sight. Much of the State of Maine is now in Severe Drought (graphic, at left) including Lincoln County. Until today we were in Moderate Drought but the continuing lack of rain is taking it’s toll. We have only recorded 0.10 inches of rain so far this month back on September 2nd. Since then, nothing. Despite the dry conditions, at -14.5 inches below the HWM, the lake level really isn’t that from where we’d expect it to be this time of year. Last year at this time it was down -10.5 inches. Keep in mind that about 3 inches of that water isn’t really ours to manage because the HWM is actually 3.4 inches ABOVE the top of the dam. Perhaps a better way to think of it is we’re now down a hair over 11 inches below the top of the dam. When things are this dry, evaporation accounts for a significant amount of water loss. Also, water soaks into the ground around the edge of the lake. Downstream flows are only 2 cfs, less than the current minimum flows of 3.5 cfs. 

According to the Maine Forestry Service, the fire danger is HIGH. Under the circumstances, I’d be surprised if they were issuing burn permits at all. Careful out there folks.

[UPDATE] The Maine Forestry Service HAS suspended issuing online burning permits. You or may not be able to get one from your local fire department.