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| Name: |
waterph
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| Subject: |
RRainfall Article
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Date:
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7/23/2008 8:40:51 AM
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Alabama rainfall ahead of last year, but still below normal
Wednesday, July 23, 2008DAVID WHITENews staff writer
MONTGOMERY - Rainfall totals in much of Alabama so far this year have been higher than they were this time last year, but still have fallen below normal amounts, officials said Tuesday.
Rainfall totals this year through Monday, compared to normal rainfall for the period, were down 3.2 inches in Mobile, 5.67 inches in Montgomery, 5.8 inches in Anniston, 8.88 inches in Tuscaloosa, 10.81 inches in Muscle Shoals and 11.67 inches in Huntsville.
A big exception to the rule has been Birmingham. The city this year had gotten 33.04 inches of rain through Monday, or 0.48 inches more than the normal amount for the period, according to the weather service.
An average of 6.9 inches below the normal rainfall of 34.7 inches as measured by 17 gauges in the Black Warrior River basin in north and west Alabama. For the same period last year, average rainfall was 16.7 inches below normal.
Alan Peeples, supervisor of reservoir management for Alabama Power, said the dry ground is soaking up so much of any rain that falls that there has been relatively little runoff, especially since mid-June, to boost the flow of streams that feed the utility's reservoirs.
"It's dry," Peeples said. "When it rains, we're seeing inflows drop off rapidly because the ground is just absorbing everything."
I'm suprised that a rep. of Alabama Power would make a comment like this. Does this mean that the same ground in April that the rain fell on is different than the ground in July. Yet, lake levels at the start of the smmmer rose to 510+ feet and now in July it is less than 504 feet.
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| Name: |
waterph
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| Subject: |
RRainfall Article
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Date:
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7/23/2008 8:51:59 AM
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Clarification.
Except for the last paragraph, everything is from the Birmingham News on 7/23/2008. I copied only parts of the article for the readers of this forum. You can see the full article at al.com.
The last paragraph is my opinion and not the Birmingham New's writer's opinion. My opinion is that the writer for the Birmingham News should have pursued the comments from the Alabama Power Representative that suggested that when it rains none of tthiss rain gets to Smith Lake because it is absorbed into the ground. This does not pass the common sense test.
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| Name: |
Yankee06
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| Subject: |
RRainfall Article
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Date:
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7/23/2008 2:40:51 PM
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Hi Waterph,
-I thought the article was interesting too.
-As you well know, the amount that the water level in the lake falls each week is only partly due to rainfall.
-From what I understand, Alabama Power takes 0.8 of water level out of the lake each, week regardless of rainfall, to service Gorgas. That drops the lake from 510 feet in May (assuming the lake reaches full pool in winter as it did this year but not last year) down to 496 ft in October which is suppose to be low pool. However, it went down to 488 last year because of the drought which caused the lake to start lower in May 2007 (508 ft) and because more water than usual was needed for barge flow etc. so last year it went down to 488 ft instead of 496.
-I have heard the five reasons for use of Smith Lake water: power (Gorgas, hydro, etc)barge traffic, drinking water, recreation, ...hmmm, I forget teh fifth at the moment, but I have not been able to find an article or statement which explanis what percentage goes to hydro power, Gorgas, barge traffic, etc. Such a percentage breakout would be a big help to understand what is really going on.
-I've been told that the 0.8 feet drop each week from June to Oct is do to the drop in water temperature in the Warrior in the summer to a point too low to effectively cool Gorgas, so Gorgas needs the cooler waters of Lake Smith. The guy who told me this worked at Gorgas, but I still don't know if that's true, ...but it does seem to be consistent with what happens every year, with or with out a drought.
-Maybe some day , someone will level with us.
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| Name: |
Little Dipper
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| Subject: |
RRainfall Article
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Date:
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7/25/2008 7:32:35 PM
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I would like to know why the water level at Smith Lake drop much lower than all the other lakes controlled by Alabama Power?
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| Name: |
waterph
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| Subject: |
RRainfall Article
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Date:
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8/2/2008 8:13:06 AM
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You are correct in your number of 0.8 feet for week. Since June 1, 2008, when the level was 510 feet to August 1, the level has fallen to 502.6 feet or 7.4 feet. The time is 9 weeks for an average of 0.8 feet per week.
It is no longer a secret that the yearly level changes are primarily due to the needs of the Gorgas Plant to meet budgeted production rates. More electricity requires more tons of coal which requires more water at lower tempeeratures to condense the steam and return water back to the river below permit lspecifications. Cool water comes from the depths of Smith Lake in the summer months.
The consensus of many is that cooling towers would resolve this issue once and for all. Hopefully, FERC will come to this same conclusion when APC deliverers data from the modeling study in 45 days and will issue directives to APC to resolve the lake level fluctions with additions to Gorgas. The clock is still ticking.
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