LAKE STEVENS — Calls are coming in to the city about private docks underwater around the lake, but officials say it’s nothing out of the ordinary for a rainy December in Snohomish County.
The rising level of Lake Stevens, which is now inches below a record high, is striking after this summer’s drought. Lakes and rivers around the county dropped noticeably lower than usual after weeks without rain and minimal snowmelt from the mountains.
Now snow is starting to pile up in the mountains, and several rainstorms hammered the lowlands this fall.
Areas around Lake Stevens got between 6 and 10 inches of rain over the past 30 days, according to the National Weather Service. The heaviest rainfall was along the southern and southeastern parts of the lake.
Along Vernon Road and North Lakeshore Drive, some private docks were partially underwater earlier this week while others remained just above the waterline. At Lundeen Park, water lapped over plants and a third of the way up the “No Lifeguard on Duty” sign on an empty beach.
“Every year, we get people saying, ‘This is the highest we’ve seen it,’ ” public works director Mick Monken said. “But we do track the levels. And we’re definitely up there, but it’s not quite the highest we’ve seen.”
It’s close, though. Monken and his staff have tracked seasonal levels of the lake since 2010 and the highest was in December 2012, when the lake measured 212.8 feet above sea level. So far this month, it has peaked at about 212.5 feet. The lake is considered to be at a high level when water hits the mark for 211.8 feet above sea level, according to an explainer from the city.
The lake is up two feet from where it was in July and August. The lowest level this summer was 210.5 feet above sea level.
From April to September, the city manages the lake level with a simple wood-plank weir at the northeast corner of the lake, where water flows out into a channel along Hartford Road and then spills into Catherine Creek. The weir controls the flow of water so the city can keep enough in the lake during the drier months. The lowest the lake could get when the weir is in use is about 209.5 feet above sea level, Monken said.
How drastically rain affects a lake depends on the length and width of the lake, said Brent Bower, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle. Sometimes a single storm can have a big effect. For example, near the end of October Spada Lake went from 1,405 feet to 1,430 feet above sea level, a 25-foot-gain. The lake is now at the 1,440-foot mark.
Heavy rain doesn’t just fill lakes, it saturates the ground around them, Monken said.
“The rain could stop and the lake might not go down for a week,” he said. “It might even go up, and that’s just the groundwater reaching the lake.”
A few folks who live along Lake Stevens call the city’s public works department each winter because their docks go under as the lake swells, Monken said. His best advice, he said, is to make sure boats, swim docks and anything else on the water is firmly secured.
“It’s an act of nature and if you get a gust of wind and a little wake, it can carry a boat or a dock out into the lake,” he said. “Then we have to go get it.”
Usually, the city recovers two or three drifting boats a year, along with the occasional loose swimming dock. Staff bring them to shore for the owners to claim.
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
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