The Lakes Are Finally Warming Up
Well, the water temperature is finally warming up a bit more to my liking!! Upper Long Pond is a delightful 80.6°F today (on the surface) and in my opinion, perfect! My toes will tell you that it is nowhere near 80°F down there but it’s all still very refreshing! But remember, with these warm water temperatures and with 85°F air temperatures, we lose ¾″ of per day of water just to evaporation, so fortunately this year we’ve got water to spare.
As I write this week’s column, Mother Nature has been unusually kind to us here in the Belgrades! The weather for our July 3 fireworks couldn’t have been better as well as the weather for the July 4 boat and street parades, despite the forecast for showers, rain, and torrential thunderstorms. Boy, did we luck out and we deserve it especially considering the rain that we’ve had to endure this season. We had 3.55″ of precipitation for the past ten days and they are forecasting a paltry 1.93″ for the next ten days. If it happens, I hope it’s only at night.
As you are aware as you drive around, all of our [dam] gates are open to reduce local flooding and send what we don’t actually need downstream to the Kennebec. The Village spillway dam is presently at 3.36″ above full pond, which is still a bit high, but Craig has opened the gate from two to three feet to lower Great Pond a bit more. Long Pond, at least at the Wings Mill Dam, has come back up to exactly full pond with both gates at 3.5′ and 4.5′ respectively. Snow Pond is still holding at 1.92″ below their spillway which is excellent. Salmon and McGrath are in good shape at 1.2″ above full pond with the 1 cfs calibrated valve opened 15 turns.
If you have a particular questions regarding our Dams and/or water levels, please email your inquiry to dickgreenan@outlook.com, and we will try to answer your question either in this column or via email.
Enjoy the family, your vacation, and this incredibly beautiful weather and please stay safe!
Dick Greenan is chairman of the Belgrade Lakes Watershed Dams Committee. He submitted this report on July 5, 2023.
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