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Lake levels #12636933 02/20/18 12:25 PM
Joined: Jun 2016
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i-Fish Offline OP
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Similar topics have been discussed but previously I remember it being moderate rainfall in a short period of time. What kind of effect do these locally heavy down pours have on lakes wheb the surrounding ground is dry and hard? Surely the ground cannot keep up with an inch of rain within an hours time and will funnel most of it to the lakes?


If you can't find em wind em.
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Re: Lake levels [Re: i-Fish] #12636936 02/20/18 12:35 PM
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Hard Rain Online Happy
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Not all that much for 1" of rain but the lakes really catch much more water when the feeder creeks get flooded but that takes more than 1" of rain.

Re: Lake levels [Re: i-Fish] #12636941 02/20/18 12:44 PM
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B
Brad R Offline
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Some ideas for you to consider.

One is there is a test to see how readily soil can absorb water and it is called a percolation test, or perc test. It is used, among other things, to determine design issues/capacities for septic tanks/fields.

One sort of "soil" that can absorb 1" of rain per hour you overlook: a beach on the ocean. Well, that is an overstatement because they are generally close to 100% sand. not so much a complex soil. But, it lets us know that sandy soils will generally absorb more water, pull it off the surface, with less run-off on top of the ground.

Sandy soils, however, do not "hold" water well. It can rain out here on Lake Athens, rain hard, and it'll be dry very fast. Heavy clay soils "hold" water, bind it up. You hear about clay soils ravaging concrete foundations when they expand and contract. It is the water content in them, or lack of it, that causes this expansion and contraction.

Just a generalized observation: sandier more open soils will soak up more water, less run-off . . . but that water will migrate under ground to bodies of water nearby. Heavier soils with lots of clay will often become saturated and the weatherman will call it that. Once soil is saturated, can't hold any more water (or the rain falls in too short of a time for it to do so), you see street flooding . . . run-off. That water ends up in storm sewers, follows gravity, ends up in creeks, lakes, etc.

Speaking of lake effects, many old timers will recall or have read about Lake Arlington, that it was calculated and assumed that once it was impounded it would take several years for it to fill up. It happened in about 6 weeks or so as I recall. More recently, I think Joe Pool Lake filled up way, way ahead of its schedule.

Brad

Re: Lake levels [Re: i-Fish] #12637115 02/20/18 02:46 PM
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KidKrappie Offline
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Lakes will come up a couple to a few feet with all of this rain. Ground has been dry but the light rain the last few days has primed it for this rain to run off.

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