Updated Hydrometric Data Charts for Lake Okanagan

[GordonH]

Being discussed here: https://forums.castanet.net/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=85312

[Glacier]

I think mission creek is filling it faster right now than they can let it out add woods and kal all the other creeks and the several feet of snow still in the greystokes plateau and there could be some flooding again

You mean Vernon Creek? Vernon Creek drains Swan Lake (via BX creek), Silverstar (also BX creek), Kal Lake, Wood Lake, Ellison/Duck lake...

[Lady tehMa]

You're welcome. You didn't seem critical to me. In between numerous urgent projects, I've been going around trying to improve certain pages. Lately, I've spent a little bit of time on the Okanagan Lake Level page because I also find it useful to me, personally. So, that's why I'm very interested in your feedback about it. I definitely want to correct any problems and add new features - in this case, the 2017 data. Hopefully I can make that happen soon.

Hey Troy, thanks for adding the 2017 data, it really adds a perspective to the whole thing!

[Troy]

You're welcome! I finally found a way (not to mention a spare few minutes) to get the 2017 data on there without making the chart look too ugly.

[ranger49]

For what it's worth current flows are:

Mission Creek inflow 36 m3/s
Vernon Creek, 6.5 m3/s

Okanagan River (Canal) 68 m3/s

[Boosted632]

I think mission creek is filling it faster right now than they can let it out add woods and kal all the other creeks and the several feet of snow still in the greystokes plateau and there could be some flooding again

You mean Vernon Creek? Vernon Creek drains Swan Lake (via BX creek), Silverstar (also BX creek), Kal Lake, Wood Lake, Ellison/Duck lake...

All of those drain into okanagan lake

[Glacier]

For what it's worth current flows are:

Mission Creek inflow 36 m3/s
Vernon Creek, 6.5 m3/s

Okanagan River (Canal) 68 m3/s

That's interesting that Mission Creek is more than half the flow into the lake! I mean, when you look at the area of the Mission Creek drainage, it's maybe 10% of the total land draining into the lake. It is wetter and higher elevation than the rest though, so that makes the difference.

Other drainage basins feeding the lake are Deep Creek (comes from near Salmon Arm) on the north end...Pinaus Lake/Equesis Creek, Bouleau Lake/Whiteman Creek, Shorts Creek (at Fintry), Bear Creek, McDougall Creek, Powers Creek, Trepanier Creek, Peaceland Creek, Eneas Creek, and Trout Creek on the west side.

On the east side, which is far wetter, it's basically all Vernon creek and Mission Creek. A couple others like Mill Creek. In that respect, it does make sense that Vernon plus Mission is well over 50%. They measure Vernon Creek ABOVE where BX creek joins in, so really, where the creek hits the lake is probably close to twice that volume. Let's say 11 m3/s. That means Mission + Vernon = 47 m3/s while the rest of the creeks into the lake = 21 m3/s (probably a little over since the lake is slowly going up).

[gswaters]

Updated (12:00am PST June 16, 2020) graphs of daily-averaged Geodetic Height (GH) and Water Temp (WT) for Lake Okanagan at Kelowna from Environment Canada Hydrometric Data. GH and WT was 342.74 m and 14.74 C, respectively, on June 15, 2020. Lake is considered “full pool” at 342.48 m.

I tweet daily updates @WestKelownian

height.png

temp.png

[ranger49]

That means Mission + Vernon = 47 m3/s while the rest of the creeks into the lake = 21 m3/s (probably a little over since the lake is slowly going up).

The missing link is evaporation. Humidity,wind,temperature,UV(?) all play a role and on hot, windy,dry days there is significant evaporation off the lakes surface.

There are 2 buoys on the lake that measure evaporation. The data I've seen show that annually between 700-800mm of water evaporates off the lake surface. I'm not sure how this translates into volume; I'll dig into it some more.

“It’s very typical in the summer to have negative inflows into Okanagan Lake, there’s more water evaporation than there is inflow - if the heat continues.” -Reimer (aug,2017)

[Glacier]

There's almost no evaporation when it's raining, which it has been doing a lot lately. Much more happening today and the rest of this week and for the rest of summer.