Runoff Report 1999 - Shuswap Lake


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Runoff Report 1999..... Runoff Stages

As mentioned at the beginning of this report the total runoff can be divided into different stages. There are usually 3 main stages, which are closely dependent on the snowpack in different altitudes and the overall temperature as described above. The first and second stage for the 1999 runoff can be further divided into 5 phases or sub-stages.

The lake level increase normally starts slowly during the first stage, than raising faster and almost linear towards the peak in the second stage. The mild summer of 1999 caused 5 major periodic level raises as shown in the table below.

	From	To	Days	Level Increase
Phase 1	March 22	March 31	9	0.280m
Phase 2	April 17	May 3	16	0.886m
Phase 3	May 12	June 8	27	1.763m
Phase 4	June 14	June 29	15	0.972m
Phase 5	July 8	July 15	7	0.164m

The time between the phases indicates a reduced lake inflow. This gave the lake enough time to drain a good portion of the water before the next phase started to increase the inflow. The most important break happened between the 4th and 5th phase. Phase 4 brought the lake to its first peak. The following phase break caused to a level decrease before phase 5 brought the lake 16.4cm up again to its final peak for 1999. Without this short interruption the lake would have exceeded the 1997 peak level, definitely causing some flood problems in this region.

All the breaks during the runoff increased the time span by about two weeks. The weather couldn't have been more cooperating in 1999.

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