What happens when it just keeps raining? If you guessed that the water level in Lake Harriman just keeps rising, you're right! In fact, due to the really significant amounts of rain in the entire Northeast, there are nice tinkly little waterfalls in places there never were waterfalls before. And they are all feeding into the lake.
Last weekend, although the weather was good, the lake was cold - really cold, 61 degrees Fahrenheit, in fact. That's fully 10 degrees cooler than it was even two weeks ago. Refreshing is the right word, when I'm trying to be polite. (Sometimes I'm not so polite. This is, after all, June.)
But worse, the water level is at historical highs. It was quite disappointing to see a number of people come by, only to find no place to set up at all, and give up. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before. Some people are happy to squeeze in to what space there is, but others prefer a bit more privacy, and they just aren't going to get it for a while.
It looks, though, like the pattern of the last month is finally breaking. We'll know, I guess, when we go even a couple of days without significant rainfall. Weather looks reasonable for the upcoming weekend - summery humidity levels, with some chance of thundershowers but nothing unusual. We'll just have to see.
At least TransCanada seems to realize this year that they have more water than they can possibly use for power generation, and they've started to draw down the water level at a modest rate already, even though there's not any demand to speak of for peak electricity yet. Perhaps by July 4 the main ledge will be open again.
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