Lake Conditions Update

[MOPanfisher]

Well Mother Nature saw fit to give us some unusual August weather, as a result the Lake Level jumped we are currently at 844.4 or so and still rising. We were unable to increase the outflows yesterday do to down stream conditions,l however this morning the river and tributaries are back in the banks and we are beginning to step up the outflow. Just bumped it to 500 CFS, next step 1000 CFS and finally to 2000 CFS before noon. We plan to hold at 2000 CFS probably until Thursday at least to see what the next round of storms brings in, if we don't get inundted again I would expect another increase to 2500 or 2800 CFS. The lake will continue to rise albeit at a slower rate once we get the outflows up to 2000 CFS, and then begin to drop slowly as the inflows decline. I am sure the upper ends of the lake to at lease midway will be muddy and expect to see floating logs and debris. If you are going out PLEASE use extra caution.

[Leitsout]

I will be headed to Pomme next Wed. for my first visit. I'll be keeping an eye to this thread for water conditions.

[shockley32]

Thanks for the update. Let's hope we get back to normal pool in a decent amount of time, however I'll take rain in Aug any time!

[MOPanfisher]

Who would have expected this in August of all months. Looks like we are going up again, the last round of rain missed most of the lake but quite a bit fell in the drainage area so upward again until the inflow drops off. As for the lake man its gonna be muddy and "chunky", with us releasing and lots of muddy water running in it will likely move further down. Fortunately it seldom gets real muddy all the way to the dam, sometimes stained but usually not chocolate milk. Will just wait and see what mother nature gives us.

Never thought I would lose a garden to drowning in August.

[lost at pomme]

Thanks for information this is crazy weather for this time of year

[MOPanfisher]

Well looks like the lake level rise is beginning to slow down, of course mother nature is still in charge in the long run. Localized flooding concerns and conditions further downstream from Truman, LOZ, and the Osage river are also driving the train. Looks like we will be sticking at 2000 CFS outflow for now, hopefully it will catch the rise and begin to lower the level slowly.

We do keep an eye on local conditions when outflows are increased, there is a location near hermitage that can flood during localized heavy rains and actually back up the river more than we can do during heavy releases. Monday the river was backed up more than we can even come close to at 3500 CFS and we were only spilling 100 CFS, however when we get into larger releases we watch it closely to try to prevent flooding private property. Any drop in outflow generally takes about 3 hours to take effect at Hermitage, but we do what is physically within our control, wish I could say we are always sucessful but sometimes a heavy rain develops and stalls out and we just can't get the changes done in time to prevent some flooding downstream. On the lake side, while we would like to keep all our campsites and launch ramps accessible all the time, it just can't be done, the lakes major purpose is flood control, so we catch it and hold it until we can safely release. Not always conducive to boating, camping, fishing etc. but higher purposes come into play. Sorry if this is re-hasing old information for anyone.

[KC Bass Fanatic]

Is there much floating debris up the rivers? I always worry about that when I'm running out in a tournament at 0530 (like I will be this weekend).

[MOPanfisher]

I would assume there is a lot of debris in the rivers, from driftwood to big hay bales. Never know what you will see.

[shockley32]

Don't forget freezers and dead cows!