Even With The Recent Heavy Rain, Lake Levels Remain Low

Even with all the rain we have had over the last week or so, the Tennessee Valley Authority says its not helping lake levels very much. The TVA says even though there was heavy rain, the runoff from all that rain did not make much of a dent in water levels in area lakes. That’s because of the average rainfall amounts of between 3 and 4 inches since Memorial Day, only about a half an inch made it into the lakes. According to data from the TVA, Douglas Lake is currently at 985.9 feet above sea level. That’s is about 4 feet below normal and is 10 feet below the lake water level one year ago.
Cherokee Lake is currently at 1,060.5 feet, but that is over 12 feet below the normal water level. The TVA says even with as much rain as we have seen over the past 10 days, water levels on both lakes could remain below normal all summer. The TVA says the amount of runoff this year is the fourth lowest in the 152 years records have been kept.