Freedom — May 21, 2007 — Now that the Sunday evening rain and thunderstorm have moved north, I can turn on the computer and provide the good news that Ossipee Lake Level has been going down since Wednesday (5.17.06) and is down to an estimated 410.2′ on the big lake and a measured 409.5′ on Broad Bay.

We had a measured maximum height of 410.9′ Wednesday morning on Broad Bay. The state graph was showing 411.7′ on the same day, but there is a question on reliability of this information.

On Sunday evening the estimated inflow is 2,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) and an outflow of 3,500 cfs at the dam. The rain this evening may bump the inflow up for a day or so but it should not reach the 16,000 cfs inflow of last Sunday.

Just to put these numbers in perspective, the outflow from Newfound Lake this evening is 2,500 cfs. This is the area just west of here where two of the downstream dams are being dismantled for fear of failure and town flooding.

There have been some periods of 10-15 mph winds out of the SW the last three days. This has moved a few docks and caused some erosion of sand and dirt banks. I have not heard reports any big problems. There is a lot of debris in the water, including some large logs that are just below the surface. My neighbor’s 12′ dock section is out there somewhere – so be careful out on the water.

Lights are back on at Ossipee Lake Marina and they are providing service. They retrieved my neighbor’s boat on Saturday.

Prediction is for clearing weather and temperatures near 80 by end of the week. This will give the black flies a few more weeks of good hunting to make up for the lousy spring they have had. Pine tree pollen just started earlier this week. We should have full coverage by this time next week.

Now it is time to put the boat in and mow the lawn for the first time!