LAKE SHASTA FILLS UP!

S

Sea Wolf

New member
After being down over 140 feet this year and into the second year of drought, Shasta Lake has fairly quickly filled up over the last few months:

Down only 22 feet from full as of midnight tonight!

First photo last November, second one in January, and last one Tuesday.

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The resort/tourist/recreation/fishing business is looking up!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Hi Joe, Great x 2. I saw that on the news a couple of night back. Wondered what kind of a good headache :shock: that must have been for the marina folks? (Re floating dock anchors, beach roads, launch ramps, etc. )

Might be a bit early for it yet but: Is there a lot of floating junk on/in the water? Maybe this would be a good time to plan a Shasta cruise.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

:oops: :wink
 
BrentB":3nr8evyp said:
Joe


Has the rainfall been gradually over the last several months or a lot of rain the last several weeks?
Click to expand...

Brent-

Both, but several big storms have been the major contributors. It also takes days and even weeks for all the precipitation to flow down into the lake from the rivers and creeks, as the origins of the three rivers extend back from 40 to over 100 miles from the lake.

It's too early to declare the drought over, particularly since some other reservoirs are still somewhat low (Trinity Lake, Lake Oroville, etc.).

Also, So Cal will never have enough water unless they develop economically feasible desalination, or build a several hundred foot wide diversion duct or tube to the Columbia River (!!!)
 
It was four yrs ago.

Rainfall is due El Nine in full swing, lake level rises have been common this year. Folsom Lake east of Sacramento rose 44 feet in January, while Lake Oroville shot up 20 feet over the course of a six-day period that month.

I hope the region has a great tourist season this year in this beautiful area


thanks
 
Sea Wolf":q3pwvtjo said:
Also, So Cal will never have enough water unless they develop economically feasible desalination, or build a several hundred foot wide diversion duct or tube to the Columbia River (!!!)
Click to expand...

Actually, I've been thinking about this (desalination more than the Columbia River Siphon).

What they need are a number of giant ferro cement submersible nuclear power stations/desalinators that can be placed on the ocean floor off So Cal and send both electrical power and fresh water ashore in meaningful quantities.

It's an engineering and financial challenge worthy of Elon Musk, and much more important than colonizing Mars, too, if you know that story.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Joe, :lol: :lol: :lol: Agree, the water to SoCal makes more sense than a junket to Mars.

Yup, the desalinization :thup :thup They do it at tons of the resorts in Mexico. Somebody has a plan. I like yours, do both in one system.

Harvey
SleepyC:moon

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Got to chime in here. this is nothing new nor unexpected. My whole family is from the gridley, Orville area and many of them worked on the Orville dam when it was built. California has always had a cycle of 3 to 5 dry years followed by 3 to four wet years. The only drought is the drought of more storage. The state and other players , have done all they can NOT to increase storage. If the three storage project that were proposed and then sued out of existence, had been built their would not be lower lake levels. Storage has not increased in 50 years or more but the population has. This is more of a water storage management problem then a weather problem. Orville, folsom and Shasta where designed to go 5 years with out any rain, but that was for a population level we have long ago passed.
 
Is directed flooding of fields during times of high water to fill underground aquifers a viable option? Filling them seems like a good idea but m2cw
 
BrentB":3vmd31zv said:
Is directed flooding of fields during times of high water to fill underground aquifers a viable option? Filling them seems like a good idea but m2cw
Click to expand...

Yes, as far as I know, but there's no systematic plan to do so, unfortunately.

Right now, today, I went by Keswick Dam, the outlet/regulator dam below Shasta that is used to keep the river flow constant over 24 hours as the main dam is turned up and down in volume over a daily period to keep up with differential power needs during the 24 hr cycle.

Belive it or not, they're DUMPING WATER OUT OF SHASTA LAKE to make/conserve space in case of a large storm and the associated runoff. They do this according to a schedule that takes into account today's date in the yearly fill cycle, and the current storage volume. They have to preserve space for flood control.

This is all because back in 1955, they didn't have enough reserve space to handle the storm runoff and had to dump 120,000 cubic feet a second into the river because the floodgates were overflowing. Part of the lower river boundaries and many homes were flooded in Redding and further downstream.

Regular water flows vary from 3,000 to about 15,000 cfs during the year, and 120,000 was quite a bit beyond the largest anticipated flow expected of 80,000 cfs (150%).

To give it some perspective, a typical refrigerator holds about 20 cubic feet of volume. 120,000 cubic feet per second is therefore 120,000 cfs divided by 20 cf, = 6,000 refrigerators full of water going over the dam and down the river per second! White water kayaking, anyone?

But not to be misunderstood, the water that is now being released will go down the river and be pumped into storage reservoirs, irrigation canals, meet agricultural needs, and help flush out the salt intrusion from the California Delta. God knows were not allowed to waste it!

By the way, 1955 was the year of the Marysville Flood on the Feather River to the north east of Sacramento and due to the same series of storms. Where were you, Tom? (I was 12+1/2 at the time).

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
The LA television stations are saying that Lake Shasta is 97% of full...
That's an amazing number... I agree...it's time for a Lake Shasta C-Dory Rally...

Joel
SEA3PO
 
Not enough water for over populated Southern California ... and the solution is build more dams to entrap water fish need in the Delta and other water impoverished areas? How about population reduction?
 
Joel, They probably won't like Oregon, too much rain. Nevada would be a better choice for sunshine. :wink: :idea:

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

:embarrased :oops:
 
yes the solution is to store more water for men and fish so when the dry times come we have water for both. It is a red herring( see what I did there) to use escapement water flow as a reason not to store MORE water. Right now water is over flowing many dams in northern California and flowing to the ocean, which is good, but we could be STORING half of that water right now so in 3 years from now we do not have to make choices between people farms and fish. We will have STORED water for all. Other then shooting people or forced birth control I just don't see how you are going to stop the population growth of this country. Well except that the native born population of California is getting smaller so maybe a fence.....
:wink:
 
So just in case there is still water in Shasta later this summer, what would a CBGT there look like? Has there ever been one there? What's to do, we'll besides fishing? I have driven by it many times, and I remember house boats. From the pictures, the water is up to the ramp. I guess that's a good place to start.

How about what's the best time, spring, summer or fall? Water temps, elivation, water clarity? Guess I should be reading Wikipedia :wink:

I would think maybe a stopover there, on the way to the SF/Sacramento Delta, before the trip to Lake Powell this Fall. Just doing some daydreaming here.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

:embarrased :oops:
 
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