Tuesday, August 15, 2017

How much water was there?

The Lake Ontario daily average water levels at Toronto are now back to about where they were the weekend we were launching boats back in April.  So how bad was this flood, really?  Pretty bad.  Water in the Toronto area was at an all-time high, since such records have been kept.

Southern Ontario had a lot of rain this spring and summer, as has the whole Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin.  Montreal had suffered flooding in May, so the flood gates in Cornwall were unable to release more water from Lake Ontario until that subsided. 

The first chart shows the average daily water level from launch day, until mid August.  The horizontal line shows the water level on May 7, when water first started seeping into the clubhouse.  When we were first laying sandbags on May 6, I never would have believed we'd have so much water, for such a sustained period of time.  It was the first time I've experienced flood conditions, and not eager to see it happen again.

There has been much speculation about whether this will be a once-every-20-years type of event, or whether we should expect significant water level variability much more frequently.  Only time will tell, but we did reach an all time high water level in May and June.  The chart below shows the previous record years for both high and low water.


We have yet to fully assess the impact of the water on our building and yard, as the ground is still mucky and wet in some areas even thought the water has receded.  Our members have pulled together to do the work that needed doing, we carried on with some great social events, and we appear to have weathered this event pretty well.  Let's just hope we don't have to endure it again any time soon.

Photos of the flood can be seen at the link on the right.