June 24, 2004
Fun with numbers
Long time readers of Gone East will know that for the past couple of springs and falls I've played around with recording the level of the lake as it fell and rose. I've calculated rates of change, and made charts of the height.
At our recent Lake Association annual meeting I discovered that the State has been recording these level ALL YEAR ROUND for MANY YEARS. Depending on the time of year, they record the level as often as 8 times a month.
Nancy McGrath, of the N.H. Department of Environmental Services Water Division, Dam Bureau, very graciously provided me with the data for the levels at Dolloff Dam going back to 1982.
Here's a quick chart of the water level continuously since 1982. Cool.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
With this data I was able to come up with a good answer to a question I've had ever since I started watching the lake level: What is the "normal" height of the lake?
The average lake height, during the months of June, July and August, for the past 12 years has been 24.8 on the Dolloff gauge. As of this morning the height is 25.1. From my own observations, and from talking to people, I had concluded that the "normal" level was 24.5. Interesting.
Over the coming weeks I'll be playing around with these numbers and posting geeky trivia about it. Nancy McGrath and I also spoke about coming up with a way for the Lake Association website to always get the latest readings, all year round, so we could have the data displayed on the site. Stay tuned.
Posted by jackhodgson at June 24, 2004 12:32 PM