August 4 – 10, 2023Vol. 25, No. 8

Watching Out For Weather Warnings

Dam at Belgrade Lakes Village, on the stream that flows from Great Pond into Long Pond.

by Dick Greenan

I apologize for lulling everyone into a false sense of comfort with our forecast of Chamber of Commerce weather for this past week! Overall, our weather has been great, but — and there’s usually a BUT — we received another warning from our “friends” at Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency just today as I am penning this week’s column:

POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING 7/27/2023……*Potential exists for the highest severe thunderstorm threat of the season today. *Excessive rainfall is possible within thunderstorms with isolated to scattered flash flooding…. . *What has changed: Flood watch has been expanded. Increasing confidence overall……*Damaging wind gusts associated with thunderstorms could lead to downed trees and power lines. Localized power outages along with travel disruptions due to closed roads could be possible in areas with severe thunderstorms. *Any severe thunderstorm will have the potential to produce damaging winds, small hail, and a possible tornado across southern NH and southwest ME.

So, my question to you is, “Do we open all of our gates, which are presently close to closed to maintain our full ponds, OR do we heed their advice, open up the gates to make room for this deluge and potentially lose what water we already have?” A real conundrum!

Well, as I am writing this, of course we are checking the radar and fortunately, it all looks like it’s going west of us once again. But that could change tonight for the worst while we’re counting sheep! Right now, we’re opting for the conservative approach, to maintain status quo, BUT — I know, another BUT! — like always, we’re keeping our fingers on the switch!

Moving forward, we are still holding our own and our ponds are in excellent shape despite the challenges. The Village dam, as of this writing, is 2.52″ above full pond with one gate opened just 6″. Long Pond, at the Wings Mill Dam, is 2.16″ also above full with just one gate opened 1′, with upper Long at just one inch above full. Snow Pond is 5.28″ below the top of their spillway, which is still good and can handle the water if we end up sending some down at the last minute. Salmon and McGrath remain in great shape, right at full pond with the 1 cfs-calibrated valve still opened 15 turns — Kudos to Cam & Co.

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.