Beaver Lake monster thingy strikes again!

Untouched photo of the Beaver Lake monster thingy

While it is very true that I can be prone to panic, (and sometimes for no real reason at all), mid May 2016 saw me really worked up, and for once, it was about something very real!

It seemed that a series of weather systems were posed just off to the west and were forecast to drop as much as an inch of rain over the next several days all across the region! Now as many of you might surmise, an inch of rain isn't all that much, especially when you consider that it would be falling on semi-parched earth! But, there was a really big fly in that ointment and I am one of the few, the blessed few you might say, who know it!

And now, I've decided that it was time to share my knowledge, to one and all! But, in order to do so, I would need to fill in some of the cracks in this pot. (The rain pot that is, not me, my pot is not cracked)!

You will note in the map at right, that there are three main bodies of water, each with a dam at its tail end, hence the name Tri-Lakes. Beaver Lake is at the highest elevation with the next two lying progressively lower. Now, when a rain system typically enters this area it comes from more or less the west and proceeds easterly dropping moisture all along the way. Thus, when Beaver Lake fills up they open the Beaver Dam which dumps oodles of water into Table Rock which as a period of time will dump its excess into the Bull Shoals system. Typically, this process would be very orderly, were it not for one strange fact. BEAVER LAKE SEEMS ABLE TO MANUFACTURE WATER OUT OF THIN AIR. Yes, you heard that right! I liken this phenomenon to the Bermuda Triangle in that some very strange magic happens over da Beaver from time to time. Perhaps even a monster! And, apparently that lake monster can create actual mass where none existed before! ( I realize that this is somewhat shocking news and I have repeatedly sent letters to the Corps of Engineers office informing them of this revelation. But, for some reason, they have elected not to answer my letters or even to inform the public). Is this yet another Government conspiracy?

I got B-E-A-V-R! Close enough!

Now, you might well ask if there is any proof to these crazy sounding assertions? Yes, I reply. You need only refer to my post titled 'The Beaver Lake Mystery' to see graphical evidence of the appearance of over eight feet of water made apparently from just seven inches of rainfall!!

And, just today, my trusty Ouiji Board has informed me that the Beaver Lake Monster thingy is about to crank it up again! You all have been warned!

The Beaver Lake mystery!

Note that I left the first '6' off the dept chart due to laziness.

Starting on about the second of April, the water level of Bull Shoals began to noticeably rise. As a matter of fact, it rose 2.39 feet in just three days and then continued a slower rate of increase from there on forward to the day of this post. My question was where did all this water come from when there had been relatively little in the form of precipitation? Actually monthly rainfall amounts all across SW MO and NW AR were on the 'lighter side' of normal by my measurements...

Well, it didn't take long for me to trace where all that water came from. This chart of water levels from Beaver Lake show an astounding 8 foot rise in just under a 30 day period in March. This occurring in an area that the NOAA has designated 'abnormally dry'. That spike in the lake level was then passed on to the rest of the waterway system; from Beaver to Table Rock to Taneycomo and finally right to my figurative doorstep on Bull Shoals.

The real question is just where all that 'mystery water' originated. Personal area weather stations, in and around Beaver Lake, all show pretty normal rates of rainfall for the month of March. The rainfall at Holiday Island was measured at just 7.3 inches for the entire year so far! Hmm. This has been such a puzzle to me that I have contacted the Corps of Engineers via email and anxiously await their response.... a week later there was no response. I got just one response, much later on, addressed to Mr. Dan Crackedpot....

Note: For those who might be wondering how much rain it would take falling over the watershed that contains the 44 square mile Beaver Lake (28,000 surface acres), I came up with a very conservative 'guesstimate' of 16 inches needed to raise the water level 8 feet. Of course I could be way off - let's all watch and see what the half inch of rain we got on the 15th does to the water level over the course of the next few days...