Sunday, April 13, 2008

Branson Falls

We drove down to Table Rock Reservoir to see the tremendous release of water from Table Rock Dam. Dave Snider, meteorologist of KY3 TV station, active local birder, and intelligent blogger, prepared a very interesting article about the tremendous volume of water that is moving through the dams of reservoirs in the White River watershed of the Ozarks these days.

Among other things, he estimates how long it would take to fill the Empire State Building with water at the current rate of release. Check out the article here.

Here's a 20 second video of the awesome power of water at Table Rock dam this afternoon.

5 comments:

marvin d said...

Good video, it saves me a trip down there to see the action. So how was the flooding in Branson, pretty bad?
Marv

Greg said...

Actually yes, but the release was down a little from previously. It will be a while before the reservoir is back to normal, so they will be releasing for a while. Table Rock Lake seems about 30 feet above normal.
However, I saw breeding plumage Common Loons, Horned Grebes, and Bonaparte's Gulls.

Nate said...

That video is really wild, I don't know that I've ever seen them release any water from the lake.

Greg said...

They usually release through the dam to generate electricity. I found this at http://www.swl.usace.army.mil/parks/tablerock/damandlake.htm.

"Four 18 foot diameter penstocks convey water to four 50,000 kilowatt generating units in the powerhouse."

I don't think I've ever seen water flow over the dam either. Pretty amazing.

Nate said...

Ah, that makes sense then why we wouldn't have seen it. Over the top is crazy.