Will Lake Champlain set a Christmas high water record? We certainly hope not, but the current lake level is flirting with flood stage (prompting me to refresh the USGS data tracker obsessively.) I’ve spent about 30 hours willing the graph’s upward arc to bend, to level off, per chance to vein falling. At last the curve seems to support my hope that Lake Champlain is cresting.
It’s worth noting that this is not normal. At all. For comparison, last year on the state, the Lake Champlain water level was 95.35. That’s a significant difference. And that photograph above, if taken a year ago, would show almost 4 feet of pier beneath Rosslyn’s boathouse.
To dilate this update beyond my own inevitably myopic perspective, I will interpose excerpts from Matt DiLoreto’s NBC5 news story with photos of Rosslyn’s waterfront today.
Once again, another round of devastating flooding… [sending] rivers like the Winooski, Lamoille, and Mad River into major flood stage.
All of the rain and mountain snowpack had to go somewhere, and that destination was Lake Champlain.
(Source: Matt DiLoreto, NBC5, Dec 21, 2023)
Here’s what that looks like on the USGS graph.
The lake level is currently around 99 feet, just a half a foot below flood stage. This is higher than at any point this year, even the July floods – which peaked just over 98 feet.
(Source: Matt DiLoreto, NBC5, Dec 21, 2023)
With the lake already over four feet above average for this time of year, any heavy rain event or spring melt would cause more widespread issues.
(Source: Matt DiLoreto, NBC5, Dec 21, 2023)
Note that the current water level has nearly exceeded our seawall. Yesterday, when conditions were rougher, waves were breaking over the top of the seawall.
Over the course of the day, my confidence has grown Lake Champlain has crested. Only hindsight will confirm my optimism, but at least for now appear to have stabilized.
Unfortunately, the forecast does go for three more days of rain next week. Hopefully meteorologists are mistaken. If we were in July, August, or even September, a steady drop could be anticipated. But this time of year, the rate at which the water level decreases is far more gradual. In the short term, it obviously provides some cause for concern as we anticipate rain next week. In the longer term, spring runoff — especially if this El Niño winter delivers significant amounts of precipitation in the form of snow or rain — might cause flooding since unusually high water levels would reduce the basin’s ability to absorb water from thawing snow and/or spring rains.
But these are worries for another day. And, with luck, perhaps these worries will gradually evaporate over the coming months. For now we savor the satisfaction that Lake Champlain has crested. Hopefully!
Leave a Reply