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Folsom Lake Level Discussion - Mormon Island Exposed

yes its officially drought

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#181 JMB83

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Posted 11 February 2014 - 05:07 PM

And yet not up to the 1977 level.

1977 bottomed out at 349' elevation. The lowest we got this year was 356'.

 

It is quite impressive how fast the lake is rising.  Here are "the ruins" on 2/10/14 .... roughly the same elevation as on Thanksgiving 2013:
1888450_10202578232729916_1048644269_n.j

 

 

Here it is today (2/11/14), already about 3' higher:
1499564_10202578232649914_1628223748_n.j

 

BOR also drastically reduced the outflow during the storm and somewhat since: http://cdec.water.ca...-Feb-2014 16:55



#182 Dave Burrell

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Posted 11 February 2014 - 05:09 PM

 

BOR also drastically reduced the outflow during the storm and somewhat since: http://cdec.water.ca...-Feb-2014 16:55

 

Very glad to hear this part about the reduction.

 

- thanks for the post and pics, very good to see the lake improving.


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#183 ducky

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Posted 11 February 2014 - 05:15 PM

Love the pics and your fellow explorer, too :)  

Thanks for the info about the BOR reduced flow rate. I was wondering about that.



#184 JMB83

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Posted 11 February 2014 - 05:33 PM

I'm guessing the significantly reduced outflow is because the American River probably got a lot of water from all the streams that feed it below the dams.  Just a guess though!  (And I could be reading the charts wrong!)



#185 Darth Lefty

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Posted 11 February 2014 - 06:51 PM

1977 bottomed out at 349' elevation. The lowest we got this year was 356'.

 

That's head scratching, the CDEC chart shows 2014 has lower storage in acre-feet.  What is the difference?

 

I can't get the CDEC pages to load tonight.


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#186 JMB83

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Posted 11 February 2014 - 10:06 PM

Again, I'm no expert.  I'm mostly interested in the elevation of the waterline.  That seems like an easy thing to measure, and to see with my own eyes.  I'm not sure how acre-feet can be measured as accurately.  

 

Here's the doc I found the elevation highs and lows from 1955 - 2005 on.  1988 - 1995 were all pretty lean years too (I didn't live here until '99).  1978 is apparently the lowest year at 347':

 

(p. 22 of document)

 

http://www.usbr.gov/...ion Survey.pdf\

 

I also must admit... while I'm happy for the much needed rain and water, I'm a tad bit sad that my dog walk adventures won't reveal much new/old stuff for (hopefully) a long time :-/



#187 (Cheesesteak)

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Posted 12 February 2014 - 09:36 AM

That's head scratching, the CDEC chart shows 2014 has lower storage in acre-feet.  What is the difference?

 

I can't get the CDEC pages to load tonight.

 

It is true that we are (or were) lower now then where we were at the same time in 76-77.  The reservoir dropped to its lowest in the fall of 1977 (early 78).  Unless we get an extraordinary run of precipitation between now and April, the reservoir will go well below the previous low of 347.  In fact - you can expect that the reservoir will reach 320' elevation by October - again, unless we get some real heavy rain.

 

Why?  because hte heavy use and draw down of the lake occurs in the summer.  Typically, the reservoir refills in the winter / spring with snow melt and is drawn down over the summer months (when there is too little inflow to replensih the reservoir).  So - you can expect to see the reservoir below where it is today, and below where it was last week.



#188 Darth Lefty

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Posted 12 February 2014 - 10:19 AM

Gotcha, I see it now.  Thanks.


"I enjoy a bit of cooking, and this has always worried me. But it's OK. I only like it because it allows me to play with knives." - James May

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#189 SacKen

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 04:49 PM

An update to that scary chart. It is still scary, but that week of storms plus the little bit that the mountains have received since then lifted us up to be tracking at just about 76-77 instead of way below. I was amazed to see how much it jumped up from those storms. Especially since the ground was pretty dry and it took a couple days to even start to see any real runoff in the rivers.

 

http://cdec.water.ca...ction?resid=FOL


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#190 chris v

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 06:14 PM

Still no snowpack though.

#191 4thgenFolsomite

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 07:46 PM

An update to that scary chart. It is still scary, but that week of storms plus the little bit that the mountains have received since then lifted us up to be tracking at just about 76-77 instead of way below. I was amazed to see how much it jumped up from those storms. Especially since the ground was pretty dry and it took a couple days to even start to see any real runoff in the rivers.

 

http://cdec.water.ca...ction?resid=FOL

back when the dam was first completed, they anticipated it would take 3 years to fill it.  It filled in one spring!


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#192 GRADS

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Posted 05 March 2014 - 06:28 PM

In other news, I was out on a bike ride with my dad today and we stopped at the top of Folsom lake crossing to look at the lake. No sooner than we stopped a guy with a security vest on walked over to us and told us we were not allowed to stop and loiter or take any pictures from there. I told him, I know you're just doing your job so don't take this personally but you cannot tell me I can't stop here or take pictures. He told me he would be calling the sac county sheriff so they could have a word with me...wtf is this about?

 


 

Its that way on the water side also. You get close to the dam or construction in a boat they will play warnings over a loud speaker to leave the area. You can see the white guard towers set up along the dam with the radar on top spinning around. Truth or not, I was also told that they had a system there than they can aim in your direction that will concentrate a loud sound that will want to make you leave the area. What did the Sheriff say when he arrived? 

Yes it's true. Here's a video of them hitting me with the LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device)....although loud on the video it is MUCH louder in person! I talked to a Sheriff after the fact and they said they can turn it up so loud it will "put you in the fetal position" 

 

 I have had a few run ins with the Sheriffs out there and let me tell you that they take the dam security very seriously. One time I got a little too close to the damn with a GoPro camera strapped to my paddle board...needless to say the Sac County Sheriffs were waiting for me two hours later when I got back to Granite Bay.

 

I've found quite a bit of cool stuff out there as well. I've found mines, old boats , two survey markers from 1949, two military grade white phosphorus flares (one of my run ins with the sheriffs), and a well out by the dam that I actually lowered my GoPro camera down....it was 50 feet deep. I have a bunch of pictures and video from this stuff, should I post it in this thread or is the better one...or a new thread?

 

I'm glad I found this forum, it's nice to see other people exploring out there.

 

Anyway, here is the LRAD video.

 



#193 caligirlz

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Posted 05 March 2014 - 07:07 PM

I've found quite a bit of cool stuff out there as well. I've found mines, old boats , two survey markers from 1949, two military grade white phosphorus flares (one of my run ins with the sheriffs), and a well out by the dam that I actually lowered my GoPro camera down....it was 50 feet deep. I have a bunch of pictures and video from this stuff, should I post it in this thread or is the better one...or a new thread?
 
I'm glad I found this forum, it's nice to see other people exploring

yes, please post your videos. :)
I'd suggest you start another thread.

#194 john

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Posted 24 September 2015 - 12:55 PM

(bump)

 

Looks like the lake is getting back to the levels where it was a couple years ago. No rain in sight.



#195 4thgenFolsomite

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Posted 24 September 2015 - 12:59 PM

not for the entire month of October either


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