I,ve been waiting exactly 1 yr to see my new pond reach pool level. I still haven't seen pool level yet. These pictures were taken yesterday the level is about 26 inches above pool level.


The 42 inch riser, 30 inch barell is getting a work out.


Even this monster primary spillway wouldn't handle the runoff on this day. I'm standing in the sheet flow in the energency spillway


B-ski the electric turbines are turned on, check out the discarge.


This is a fine example of what a 400 acre watershed can unleash. This is the other watershed that flows behind the dam


The following picture is taken at my home place all spillways are running at max.

This is all good news, now for the Bad, it's suppose to do it again today and tonight.

PLease Bow your heads with me.
Dear Lord I know Iv'e been praying for this day for quite some time. Your blessing are more than I could have ever ask for. I pray that you share this kindness with my other PBFM & friends. Hey men.

rt, congratulations...I think

My family lives over between Hubbard and Penelope and have had 2 new ponds anxiousily awaiting rain for sometime as well. The 2.5" rain least week saturated the ground, and the 4" one last night filled them. Neither "ran around"(YET!) but both are close. My uncle now has about a 5-6 acre lake behind his house and we can finally start thinking about fish again!!! yippee! I hope to have some pics by tonight from him.

I wonder if Overton has any fish he'd be willin to sell!

I've got tons of fish, but you might want to put a leash on them.

Dang rockytopper, I hope we don't get that much rain here, we are in a flood watch until tomarrow night.

I hope DD1 , heybud and PFF are getting some rain along with all of you who need it. We have had the driest March on records here but the ponds are still brim full and over flowing water.

You must have been dead center in that storm. We didn't get anything out of it besides allot of thunder, but it's supposed to slide East a bit tonight.

Thanks for the pics, it's amazing what mother nature can unleash!!!!

Eddie

Todd, I've been looking at your stocking rates. How much extra to have the leashes on them when you deliver?

I went and took a look this morning. I got 3.75 inches in the last week. Two inches came in 2 different slow, soaking rains. Then 1.75 last night. It looks like there are some pretty good rains coming now.

My house pond has come up a little over a foot but is still 5 ft. low. However, water is still flowing in. The one on my other place has come up about 2 ft. and is still about a foot low. Man, I hope both fill. They haven't been full in years. Oh yeah, tornados heading that way.

You must have bought FMcB a beer.

No but I did give him a 50 lb. bag of Game Fish Chow.

Another inch of rain since I left there 3 hours ago.

Hey Fatty, where are you?

We set an all-time record low rainfall total in San Antonio for the month of February. As of today, we set an all-time record high for the month of March. The odds of that are absolutely astronomical. El Nino?

Our pond east of S.A. has been nearly 10 ft. low since last summer, but this month it has raised 3-4 ft. It's good to have the rain. Your place is looking great, rockytopper. It looks like your wait is over. Keep us posted!

P.S.- You've got some serious watershed!

Well my pond has gained at least 2 feet today and the rain isn't over yet. I'm at work now and can't waite to see how close it is to full pool in the morning. Side note: I haven't seen any sign of my fish since I put them in three months ago, besides a few FH floaters. My pond has gained 6 to 8 feet since then. Should I be worried?

Jeesh, ol' Rocky-T has this knack for attracting massive amounts of water. You would make a lousy moderator! Why can't you just settle for average, nominal amounts of water...why does it always have to be this dramatic, "quick, build the ark!" event? :p Have you been secretly attending the Fatty McButterfeet School of Dance ?
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That is somethin' else, ain't it? I see this kinda stuff and it makes me feel soooo much better about my minimal drainage zone. I'm pretty sure that congrat's are in order...right? Are there any anticipated, calculable damages?

I wouldn't be too worried yet, Okie. If you put the fish in 3 months ago, that would mean they went in about the first of the year? Unless your water temp. was too cold and the fish weren't acclimated very well prior to release, they should be fine. Did you see them shortly after they were put in? Do you feed? If so, you should see fish within a few weeks. If not, you may not see them for awhile, depending on how hard you're hunting for them. In a 1/4 acre pond, however, it's only a matter of time before you spot them.

It appears that I got approx 5 to 6 inches today. Dang good thing that I was 6 ft. low and have a lousy runoff area. I have to admit that I'm nervous. All of this came in 3 or 4 hours and it's still coming down.
Good chance that I will leave before dawn and go see both places.

Dave I waded angle deep in water and black gumbo to get those shots yesterday. I've waited so long to see it full I couldn't help myself. Don't get stuck my friend and watch out for those twisters tonight. I am amazed at the interactive radar. You can zoom down to your exact location and watch the weather coming at you. My sister down in Waco area just missed a close one. I watched the radar play by play while I kept in close contact with her, luckily the rotation was about 1/4 mile from her when it passed. So far to night my prayers have been answered. The big rains are splitting around me but it's going to be a long night.

Yep congrats are in order. B-ski say it... say it... "You Won RT, You Won RT, your's reached pool before mine".

You know it was last march when we were building it that we got the last 6 inch down poor in the middle of construction. Maybe it is going to become a annual thing. Global warming I guess.
Al what do you think?

I'm going to start my own moto like the rest of you.

How about?
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It's better to have to much water than not enough.

Best of luck DD1. Here's hoping you reach full pool also.

Well, I just got off the phone with my wife and I have a full pond. It was quite a storm we had today. Lots of rain, and a tornado warning. The tornado did not touch down, but the rotation went right over my property. The internet is saying I got about 5 inches in the past 48 hours.
I guess that's why I went from 4 feet below "full" to "full" in two days.


I am feeding my fish, but we are finishing up on building our house and I have not been feeding everyday.

Ross,wonder if I know your family?I run a lawnmower repair business in hubbard,and know most of the folks around here.
Rocky,Im getting the same watershed you are.I flooded a little last week and now am getting damage.Got5 1/2 in thurs and its still raining.I know we needed rain real bad but this is a bit rediculas.Somebody turn it off for a bit so I can fix my spillway.Ill take some pics and try to post tham tommorow.Hope everyones pond gets full.
Todd please call me this am if possible,Ill be at work if they got the power back on,if not Ill be at home.
TOM G

My emergency spillway is still running around this morning. The pictures above don't come close to the scene we had here last night but hey men we survived. The water liked about 2 inches over topping the dam above my house. Looks like all of us here in texas are gitting some of this. I hope all is well with everyone. Eddie & ML it's in you neiborhoods now.
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It's better to have to much water than not enough. I think

RT that means your spillway/pipe system is designed and functions as intended. But 2in is close.

4 inches here at NASA in the last few hours. Too bad it's all running into the Gulf. How are the reservoirs around Dallas doing? Are the real low ones filling?

RT, what is the site for the interactive radar youre watching?

You guys in Texas send some rain my way. I am below normal by 5 inches this year.

Frank

Anybody heard from FatMcB? Hope he's OK.

Yeah what is the interactive site link...Please

Hey Burgermeister one of my scouts is heading down to the NASA space camp in florida this summer. Its his 5th year down and he is one bright young man! I think there will be a day that I can say, Hey that Astornaught was a Scout of mine!!

BM, weather.com has the interactive radar. Enter your zipcode and click on the map to go interactive. You can zoom in & out and change the opacity of the radar image; probably other stuff too.

Thats the site I always use but you guys made it sound really cool! Maybe I should pay a little more attention to the details of the site

My rain gage has a hole in it but my neighbor says we got 9 inches the last to days.

Ewest, my Dam doesn't have enough free board, I got greeded and raised the spillway 18 inches after we built it. I am planning to cut the secondary emergency spillway on the other end of the dam down to the primary emergency spillway level to increase the flow capabilities. I have also rasised the dam about 1 ft last year but I still need more. The new big pond handled this event no issues it was built right the first time. You no what they say 3's a charm.
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It's better to have to much water than not enough. I think

Thanks, Theo. I have been using NWS, and lately wunderground. TWC had seemed to be behind the curve. I guess I havent paid much attention to it lately. Pretty cool...Well, actually, it still seems to be delayed by an hour.

Tom,

Your name sounded familar, so I called my Mom(Rita)...you've got her JD lawn tractor right now! Linda & Arnold Baker are my Aunt & Uncle.

Ross

Frank my lake is in Oglethorpe county and ever since that big rain we had in march 1st my pond got within two feet from the top!!!
I need one more BIG rain and I will be there. But it does not look good for us I think we might be in for yet another dry one this year ... Rocktopper has been waiting a whole year for this rain I have been waiting three years for mine to come. I actually added 120 acres of water shed to my lake and when we had rains it has greatly helped. But we just have not been getting any rain. we are 7.5 inchs in a defiecet this year and it gets worse week by week!!

Hey Burg, have you tried a weather overlay on Google Earth? You can view the radar full screen, zoom in close, and see where it's raining within a few yards. You have to close Google Earth to make it update, but it's still pretty neat.

Tell me more, Bob. I downloaded G Earth, and have the satellite photo; how do I overlay a weathermap?

big_pond

I received 3.5 inches on Mar 1 when the heavy storms came through. I had water running out of my emergency spillway. My syphons could not handle the volume that fell in such a short time. Thank goodness for a proper emergency spillway!

I hope this year is not as bad - but in the recent 4 years I was below normal by a bunch!

Frank

Final report, these pictures are taken Sunday morning after the main rain event. These are shots of the pond at pool level. The amount of water that flowed in and out is overwhelming. The debre is 4 ft above the prime outlet. The emergency spillway flowed 2 ft deep. I had some scouring damage but not to bad. The 40 acre flood lake down stream about 1/2 mile away filled to over 170 acres of water over night and backed water almost to my property line.

Pan view from house site earth pier

View looking from dam

view looking from inlet

The laser level must have been on. I set these post 1 ft above the flag mark, looks like we got it pretty close.

RT,

Yes, on the too much water rather than not enough...but only if you have done your homework in building the pond. Clearly you did....but be very careful about raising that spillway...I've seen much more rain in a much shorter time frame. Great job!

p.s. looks like a great start on the hay growing season also.

Ml, no worries I want be raising it on this one, I've already learned my lesson. We have had more rain as much as 7 inches in one night but this event topped all we have seen. The 4 inches came in less than 1.5 hrs on ground that was totally saturated and still draining from the night before. I hope these are few and far between. There are folks that live south of town on a dead end county road, The creek on the back of my place flows across that road the bridge is gone washed away. About 20 families are stranded no way out or in.

As for my hay, I plowed all the fields up, they look pretty pitiful right now, hopefully all the roots didn't wash down stream and it will come back strong in a few weeks when the weather warms. Our poor farmers can't get a break, first no crops in 2 years because of draught, now major crop damage from to much water.

We're wet. The Platte is flowing full. I hope they are catching some up stream. We've been very dry for the past 6+ years. I'm up about about two feet from the high last year on a sand pit lake. This is totally groundwater, which means the whole valley is up (many miles wide over a fairly long period of time). We've got standing water in the borrow ditchs. Some good news if the upper basin catches some. You boys down south sound like you have almost enough.

It is amazing how some have and some don't. The west coast seems really dry right now. All time record low rain falls for CA??? Hope they like beer and wine. And North East. Pond, what pond. It's more like a glacier. Wow. Snow and more snow. Hang in there folks. Things will settle down (as proven by history, I think).