Lake Wahtopanah by the numbers

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The provincial government has said the water level in Lake Wahtopanah in Rivers has recently reached record highs.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/07/2020 (2154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The provincial government has said the water level in Lake Wahtopanah in Rivers has recently reached record highs.

Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler called the recent rainfall a one-in-a-1,000-year event, but how do you quantify that?

To put things in perspective, here are some of the key numbers when it comes to the lake and its dam.

Colin Slark/The Brandon Sun
This graph shows the impact of recent storms on the water level in Lake Wahtopanah in Rivers. Data was obtained from the federal government's hydrologic data centre online.
Colin Slark/The Brandon Sun This graph shows the impact of recent storms on the water level in Lake Wahtopanah in Rivers. Data was obtained from the federal government's hydrologic data centre online.

According to data obtained from the Government of Canada online hydrometric data, the water level in the lake was approximately 469.7 metres above sea level. At the water level’s peak on Canada Day, the lake had swollen to 471.022 metres above sea level.

A spokesperson from Manitoba Infrastructure said the approximate normal water level in the lake is 468.4 metres above sea level, meaning the water still has to recede by more than a metre to return to normal.

When the water was at its height on Canada Day, 12,000 cubic feet per second of water was going through the spillway at the dam at Lake Wahtopanah. On Tuesday, it had gone down to 4,400 cubic feet per second. A different government spokesperson told the Sun earlier this week the regular flow through the spillway is 330 cubic feet per second.

All of this happened because 178 millimetres of rain fell on Rivers from 1 p.m. on June 28 through noon on July 1.

» The Brandon Sun

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