California, which has been in drought for for the past five years, has found some respite in heavy rains this winter. But while those same rains have caused flooding, mudslides, and a near-catastrophic release of water from a failing dam spillway, they have nonetheless replenished reservoirs and aquifers. As one example, take a look at this picture of Lake Berryessa in Northern California I took on January 17, 2011:
That cylindrical object you see on the left is the bellmouth spillway of the Monticello Dam, known to locals as the "Glory Hole". It's essentially a big drainpipe that drains the lake to an outflow at the bottom of the dam when it exceeds its maximum level, which last happened in 2006. That is, until this month when the lake reached capacity once again. This drone footage shows the engineering of the Glory Hole in action:
That's all from us here at the blog for this week. We'll be back on Monday, but in the meantime have a great weekend!
Eek! Isn't that a hazard for kayakers and canoes? I'd hate to think that anyone had ever got caught in it. But yes it does look amazing.
Posted by: Simon Johnson | March 08, 2017 at 01:29