Short-term forecast looking pretty good
According to the Lawrenceville Weather Blog, our short-term outlook is pretty good. The summary of their article:
- Pleasant weather through Wednesday.
- 1/2 inch of rain late Thursday or Friday morning.
- Rain again on Tuesday, 11/27 until Thursday, 11/29.
- Another storm the first weekend in December.
They point out that we’ll still be well below our normal for the month (and way below our yearly total), but it’s a good start.
Their forecast seems to jive pretty well with Weather.com 10-day forecast. However, the Accuweather.com 15-day forecast is a bit different though it still shows rain on a handful of days. In any case, this looks to be pretty good news.
November 18th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Oh happy happy, joy joy! It is gonna rain!
Pretty good news might even add a more few hours to the 79 days left. Why is so difficult for Georgia residents to come up with a plan for the common good and expand the water resources for Atlanta. Just replace “me” with “we”.
Is anyone in Atlanta brighter than Stimpy? Or have you all just been drinking the Republican kool-aid for to long?
November 19th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Let’s not be rude notanumber.
Good news about the rain! The rain thus far has been so sporadic that even with the rain the lake has dropped each day. Maybe with a series of days of rain, the lake level will rise for the first time in months. If it buys a couple more days that’s good news, but if the lake goes up even a smidgen, it’d be a real boost to morale.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Right on Notanumber. Serves Georgia right for being a red state huh?
Seems like there have been several people posting with this same tone. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s about how a limited resource gets shared. Maybe we can cut back on the partisan hate just a bit????
November 19th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
No hate. It is a established fact that Republicans are less informed and slower to change unproductive actions than the population overall. I love you for your faults, it is what makes you human. But man some of you are so frustrating.
I agree that Atlanta should not go thirsty. And in the immediate future there is only the option of aid and assistance. The country needs to help. That is why we have a Union. I hope FEMA and others are planning to support Atlanta if need be. In the longer term though to fix the problem the majority of Atlanta residents need to admit that they have a problem. And why do so many in Atlanta think that, at this time, it is Ok for any home to use more than say 500 gallons daily per occupant. That 500gal/occ should be absolute. After 550gal/occ the tap needs to close.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I am also confused as to how a weather forecast that calls for 1 day in 10 to have a probability of precipitation at 50% or above is “pretty good”?
But, maybe if you pray louder … the invisible guy in the sky will hear you. Yeah that’s a plan!
November 19th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Compared to what we’ve been getting lately, a chance of rain three times in the next two weeks is “pretty good”. Not great, not drought-eliminating, but pretty good.
November 19th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
The key is not chance but probability. I’d love to play cash poker with you.
November 19th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
I’m not sure where you are getting the idea that homes in Atlanta are using 500 gallons per occupant notanumber. The average, pre-conservation, was 183 gallons, and it’s dropped 30% or so since.
Nor is it an established fact that “Republicans” are less informed and slower to change than the overall population. I happen to really get a kick out of statistics. Such an analysis would have to look at hundreds of variables and to capture a reasonable sample of the population, would have to go to homes in every state. And who would fund such an analysis? You’re being really silly.
Besides, you really don’t want to open that can of worms - Georgia has had nothing but Democratic Governors since 1877 until Sonny in 2003. Atlanta has had nothing but Democratic mayors since the 1960’s. The whole of the history of the water issues in Georgia have been watched over by Democrats (excepting Sonny starting in 2003, and even then the incumbent mayor is democratic).
If you wanted to say “Local and State Government didn’t do their jobs during the whole of the water crisis” then you could only logically blame Democrats.
This isn’t a political issue. It’s how a limited resource gets handled and shared, and that is really the framework we should use in discussing this issue.
November 19th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Look back on the weather reports for the past year. Most of the weather guys were wrong. I am not optimistic for lots of rain to fall for rest of November.
November 19th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
I was just reading an article from ABC news on the net, from October 15, 2007, that stated 22 billion gallons of water was accidentally released from Lake Lanier this past June. Does anybody know what happened and why? Does somebody in our government want Atlanta to run out of water?
November 19th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
It was due to a faulty meter that they had just installed. I don’t know much more than that.
November 19th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I’ve been watching the real time data from USGS. So far, today has been the slowest drop in lake level for a couple of months. Normally weekends are slow, but things typically would have gone back to a .18 to .25 or so drop today. So far today it’s only .02.
Anybody know why? Another faulty meter?
November 19th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Nope.
They didn’t do a morning release for some reason. Usually they do a morning and an evening release. I verified it with the USGS phone number for the buford dam that wspurlock provided a while back.
The lake should start to suck down around 5:55pm est when they open for the evening release.
That’s good though - it shows how much the lake loses when the dam is not actively siphoning water off. Yesterday (Sunday the 18th) they did the same thing and the lake dropped 0.01 by 5:55. So about 0.02 in a day without Buford dam. So on a weekday it’s shaping up to be about double that? That’s useful info!
(The 22 billion gallon accidental release back in June represents about 11 - 17 days of normal release, fyi.)
November 19th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
And that’s exactly what has happened, rkolter; Lanier’s water level dropped by an inch, or .09′, between 5:45pm and 9pm Eastern, to 1052.64′ (its all-time record low).
November 20th, 2007 at 12:36 am
rkolter, admittedly my 500-550gal was a high guess and not representative of the facts you provided. Thank you.
I guess I was influenced in large part by this blog’s defenders of Chris Carlos’ use of 14,700 gal/day in September. Let see 150 gals a day per person into 14,700 means he could be providing housing for about 100 people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/us/15water.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
November 20th, 2007 at 7:23 am
I ordered printed copies of my water bills for the last 24 months. I’ve already entered the last three months I had on hand into a spreadsheet. Our normal water usage for 2 adult family household + 2 large dogs is 3 CCF.
1 CCF is 748 gallons, so we use a nominal 2250 gallons a month.
I asked the woman at the Gainesville City water authority if this was low, average, or high. She stated they figure 3 CCF per person as average. So by that mark, we’re doing quite well.
–jc
November 21st, 2007 at 9:22 am
The forecast looks good for next week.
jcwren, those numbers are about like mine, although I just planted 50 big shrubs and take really long showers. These shrubs are drought resistant so once they are established they require no extra watering. I’m also taking shorter showers.
I’ll bet a lot of people don’t have a nozzle on their hose so when they wash their cars or dogs they let it run on the ground when they are soaping up.
I guess my biggest waste is waiting for hot water. I’m looking at ways to correct that as it will save me money over time. I can wrap the hot water pipes, move the hot water heater, install an instant hot water under the kitchen sink, and use smaller diameter pipes. I already installed low flow toilets and new dishwasher.
I’ll be that guy Carlos had a reverse osmosis on his entire house. They discharge up to 90% of of the water when filtering. I have one on my sink that I use for drinking water because our water is really bad.
I also installed power vents on the roof which cut back on the electric consumption. Also flourecent bulbs which will save about $100 year. (they last about 12 years, so I hope to recycle them by then.)
I’ve also noticed new office complexes are using underground storage of the run off from the roof then use that water for irrigation. Some of my neighbors do that as well with plastic drums with lattice around them so they don’t look unsightly.
November 21st, 2007 at 10:18 am
JCWren, Actually, my numbers for September are higher than your yearly average.
I’m sure my fall planting new shrubs are responsible but they are drought resistant.
Your consumption isn’t bad at 100 gallons a day per person. 80 would be better.
My next washer will also be a front end loader.
November 21st, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Ummm… Your math eludes me. 2250 gallons a month, divided by 30 days, divided by 2 people is about 37.5 gallons a day…
–jc
November 21st, 2007 at 1:46 pm
My mistake, 3000 gallons would be 100 gallons a day per person.
Yeah, yours is rather low.
By the way, I’m also not in an area affected by the drought as we have a large resevoir.
I have no idea what my annual consumption is, although I’m always at the minimum sewer fee, and water is never more than $10.
Still, I want to conserve as much as possible.
November 21st, 2007 at 3:14 pm
A “Katrina” is needed……………..the rain part of it people………..plus, the Mayor needs to stop giving it way to Florida……………go see her………she needs to stop giving it away…………..just surf the net and you will find the articles about it.
November 21st, 2007 at 5:52 pm
All, I’ve learned from this whole quagmire is that Lake Lanier don’t lie!