April 2021

I have archived the April 2021 Water Level Chart (at left). The dearth of precipitation that has plagued us for much of last year and for the first three months of this year has continued into April with total monthly rainfall amounting to only 3.12 inches, a good deal of which we received on the last day of the month. This is well below the April average of 3.87 inches. Year to date we’re 3.5  inches below normal and we’re only a third of the way through the year. This does not bode well for ground water supplies this summer, even if precipitation returns to something like normal. The USDA has categorized this area of Maine as “Abnormally Dry” (see below) which is certainly an unusual condition for Springtime in the Northeast. Nationwide, drought conditions are much worse as this next graphic from the Maine Climate Office clearly shows: Continue reading →

March 2021

I have archived the March 2021 Water Level Chart (at left). Precipitation was again slow to accumulate in March and we ended the month with only 2.00 inches of rain, well below the monthly average of 3.77 inches. Despite the lack of snow pack and the lack of rain, we did succeed in filling the lake before the end of the month, and on pretty much the same date as last year. We did this by adding one or two stop logs, gradually raising the lake level (the black dashed line on the chart represents the height of stop logs in the weir). The dam’s gate was closed for the entire month and was only opened 1 foot on the 30th in anticipation of a significant rain event on expected on April 1st, no fooling! Filling the lake in the spring is made easier when there is more water to work with; we were able to do it this spring largely at the expense of meeting the minimum flow requirement. We started the month with the lake level down -1.15 feet below the HWM and ended up on March 31st with the lake at -0.20 feet below the HWM with a little water running over the dam. The ice went out on March 29th. Continue reading →