Fortunately Ike swept through the north Arkansas area quickly dumping about 2 to 4 inches of rain in our area. At Bull Shoals Dam the reading was 2 inches and up in the main water shed in Missouri the totals were a little higher with up to 6 inches of rain. This of course will bring our lake level at Bull Shoals Dam up especially as there is currently no generation or very little generation as you can see with this graph.
I’ll hazard a guess and predict the lake will crest out at 687.50 and we’ll more than likely find out on the 15th what the corps best guess is.
As it stands now we are at 683.00 ft above mean sea level and the top of the flood pool is 695.00 ft. which leaves us with 12 feet to work with.
I suppose there is a possibility of opening the flood gates again but that of course will depend on what is happening down stream.
Use this link http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ar/nwis/rt to access the water gages in Arkansas This gage is at Newport Arkansas.
14 feet is flood stage but it will take a day or two for the water to reach there. This gage was still dropping a week ago on 9/07/08 at 22 feet due to Gustave.
I did have a look at the river this morning and it is muddy looking from the golf course runoff but should clear up by morning and especially so if some generation is done today. Our highs for this coming week are are forecast to be in the 70’s and by next saturday we will hit the 80’s once again. An early fall perhaps. This monday night our lowest low is forecast to be 50. If you are headed this way to fish bring a jacket and other appropriate clothing for the mornings. There is no rain forecast through saturday 20th of september.
The generation schedule http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx says little generation for either today sunday or monday until 5:00 pm for two hours however this schedule is known to be inaccurate and do not depend on it.