A Serious Lack of Rain
The total lack of afternoon showers has added to the challenges for our beloved farmers, gardeners, and our water levels. As of this writing, we have received a paltry 0.11″ of precipitation in the past ten days with nothing forecasted for the next ten! Obviously, we are very short of our normal 3.25″ of precipitation for the month. If your rain dance outfit is still in the closet, it might be time to get it out!!
Remarkably, despite the lack of rain, Great Pond is only 1″ below full pond. Long Pond is 3.72″ below full. To put things into perspective, last year at this time Long Pond was 4.30″ above full! Salmon/McGrath is now 4.5″ below full because of this drought and the mandated 1 cfs 24/7 flow into the stream emptying into Great Pond’s Hatch Cove. Snow Pond, a.k.a. Messalonskee Lake, is now 6.36″ below full with the total lack of water “support” from up above, i.e. Long Pond and the rest of the Belgrade Lakes chain.
This just in today from our colleagues at Essex Hydro who operates the Oakland Dam:
I am contacting you to notify you that due to lake of precipitation, yesterday we dropped below the allowed summer lake level of 234.9 [feet above sea level] and the current lake level is elevation 234.85. We have not been running the hydropower projects on Messalonskee stream and have been releasing only the minimum flow and what is necessary to attempt to maintain the Messalonskee Stream impoundments within their allowed elevation range. We operated the hydro projects for a single day in July. Despite our attempts to limit hydro operations and maintain lake level the lack of precipitation in July has resulted in lake levels dropping below allowed and desired level. We will continue to limit discharge from the lake until sufficient precipitation can refill to allowed levels but it is uncertain when that may happen. —Essex Hydro
While you’re looking out for the rocks near shore, you’ll want to give an even wider berth and observe Maine’s important 200′, no-wake zone! It’s there for a multitude of reasons. Yours truly bumped the bottom twice in the past two days! I’ve since learned that props are cheaper by the dozen! Also, for those of you with boatlifts: to avoid any unnecessary embarrassment, please keep an eye on your water level to make sure that you can still get your boat off.
Enjoy the family, your vacation, and this incredibly beautiful weather!
Dick Greenan is the Rome representative on the Belgrade Lakes Watershed Dams Committee. He submitted this report on August 5, 2025.Download Full Newspaper: High Res | Low Res (Details…)
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