[CanisLupusArctos]

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for the possibility of flooding on rivers this weekend. We may all have our eyes on the lake but I should have emphasized earlier that I'm more concerned about rising rivers this spring, than I am about rising lake.

On lake flooding...

Let's not forget that last year's high lake level happened as a result of the April 16 NorEaster. I left to go to work in the mid-afternoon and the lake was about 10 inches below the dock. When I came back in late evening the water was licking at the underside of the dock. The next morning, the dock was underwater. It rose about a foot in just a couple of days.

That storm dropped 2.78 inches of rain over the course of three days. The greatest fell on the 16th, with 1.90 inches of rain. Snowcover at the start of the storm was 1 inch. The winter had brought 9.71 inches of rain/melt until that point.

This year we have 10 inches of snow on the ground (as of yesterday). The winter has brought 14.76 inches of precip from Dec. 1 until today, although I don't know how much of that has already passed downstream.

This data hints that it probably wouldn't take a storm as big as last year's to create a similar problem. BUT, as Keeper said, it's hard to monitor the inflow of the lake because it's not like it comes in through just one source... this lake gets its water from a million different little sources and probably a few that Indiana Jones hasn't found yet.

There's very little reason (in the big scheme of things) to fret over a very-high lake level, because neighborhoods and highways don't get washed away by Lake Winnipesaukee. The lake floods pass, and we get right back to normal.

In the most recent floods (Oct 2005, May 2006, April 2007) the lakes region and the rest of the state lost several roads to washouts from swollen streams and rivers. Dams were threatening to go. Dover NH came verrrryyy close to losing their Central Ave Bridge downtown. People got swept away and died. Recycle bins from the Manchester area washed up on the Massachusetts coast along with everything else that had been in people's yards. Some people along the state's rivers are still rebuilding or repairing. For that reason, NOAA, FEMA and others are directing their flood concerns toward the state's rivers. Most of the problems associated with our high lake level don't mean much when we can't even get to the lake or around the area because the roads are washed out.

The rivers, not the lake, are also where taxpayers should be most concerned: Roads are made from oil, using heavy equipment that burns a lot of fuel, and the price of oil keeps soaring into record territory.

--> Answer to Hazelnut: Last year's lake debris was more a result of wind from the April 16 storm and not so much the flood. Prior to the storm, the ice wasn't ready to go soon. During the storm, my station had wind gusts to 50 mph for 18 hours. We maxed out with a sustained wind of 45 mph and gust to 64 mph. This violently broke up the ice which was still mostly solid, clear, 6-12" thick. I watched bergs of it float by during the storm, crash into shoreline structures, and carry debris away. It was incredible to watch, along with the trees falling. The shoreline got pummeled in that event, by air and by iceberg. The result was a lot of stuff floating around in the lake after the storm ended.