Water levels where you boat !!

[bud37]

Just watching another interesting report on water levels. Seems the great Miss has dropped a considerable amount and I have seen reports from lake Tahoe, Mead and others.

How and are these levels affecting your boating, I know on the great lakes we have had quite the fluctuations over the years.

[RGrew176]

Great Lakes levels have dropped a decent amount but are still great for boating.

[Cooler]

Yep, that is scary. Seems the water ways that are heavily reliant of rain fall are in trouble with the current drought conditions. We, in The Great Lakes, have some protection with that due to the rotation of water source. We essentially evaporate the lakes into the atmosphere, and then that returns as rain or snow. We get into a lot of trouble when our winters are too mild, and winter evaporation accelerates due to lack of ice cover. Lot of that moisture just doesn't return due to dry air conditions of winter. This is one of the real disasters of climate change, previously known as global warming. er

[km1125]

Remember just a few years ago when the Great Lakes were also "drying up" and lakes Huron and Michigan were near all-time lows?? Everyone was complaining about groundings and having to dredge harbors.

They bounced back rather quickly!!

As will the big Ol' Miss. I still have a VCR tape from the late 80's or early 90's when there was "historic flooding" which was only a few years after they were talking about it too maybe drying up and being unnavigable. They were talking about more locks to 'trap' water upstream to provide for shipping.

[denders]

This summer our lake was at it's highest level since 1950. We were wading through about 3 feet of water over the finger dock to get on the boat. The summer before ... They were restricting lake outflow because the lake was so low. Next summer , I have no idea.

[bud37]

Anywhere we were with fixed docks was always a challenge from one year to the next, some years much larger than others.
I remember having to climb down to get on the boat then the levels rose to a point where the water was so high that the fenders were laying in the water ( ineffective ) and a good sized wake would lift the boats on the dock edge.....some very creative tie offs were required.....good thing we lived near our boat.

This does seem a little more widespread the last while though..

[MichaelOKC]

Our boat is docked at Lake Tenkiller in northeastern Oklahoma. This spring we had near record breaking floods. If you really wanted to reach your boat, the Marina would take you to and back using their pontoons. Currently, Tenkiller is at near record breaking low water levels. You can get to the dock, but the ramp is precariously steep.

Tenkiller is primarily feed by the Illinois River which then flows into the Arkansas and ultimately the Mississippi.