The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry – North Bay District has extended a Flood Warning is for Lake Temagami, the Sturgeon River, Lake Nipissing, and French River until Thursday, May 30.
In some areas, water levels are expected to slowly stabilize over the next several days.
The North Bay Mattawa Conservation Authority says, as of this morning, the level on Lake Nipissing increased to 196.52m, rising about 2cm since yesterday.
In the North Bay area, the gauge read 196.54m, whereas the gauge at the French River outlet on the Lake read 196.48m. During yesterday's wind and weather system, the level briefly spiked to 196.59 due to strong sustained winds of 30km/hr and gusts up to 60km/hr from the west. There was another 5-10mm that fell over most of the watershed yesterday, much of the rain equated to runoff as it was quite intense plus the recent rains over the last several days saturated the ground.
There are a series of weather systems coming into the area over the next five days.
There is not a lot of rain in each individual system, but collectively there could be 25-40mm of rain over the next five days, falling on saturated ground which will increase runoff and inflow to the lake. There is a chance of showers overnight of 1-3mm plus another 10-15mm tomorrow and another 15-20mm of rain spread through the week.
Wind speed and direction continues to be a major factor in local water levels. Wind Saturday is expected from the south-east at 19 km/h gusting to 29.
Inflows have spiked again since yesterday due to the recent rainfall.
With the current outflows and weather forecast, inflows are forecasted to remain relatively high and will result in Lake levels continuing to climb but will ultimately depend on the rate of evaporation and amount of rain. Downstream on the French River, flows at Wolseley Bay have reacted slightly due to the rain and at Dry Pine Bay it has more or less stabilized; flows will remain high with the rain in the forecast.
Sand and sandbags are available to residents for the purpose of protecting their properties at Public Works on Franklin Street, but filling stations at Sunset Park at the end of Sunset Boulevard and Champlain Park at the end of Premier Road will no longer be operated.
Lake Temagami water levels have exceeded the flood allowance and could increase further with additional precipitation.
Residents along the French River continue to see higher than normal water levels. Levels are expected to increase over the next several days and remain high with the forecasted rainfall and increased discharge from Lake Nipissing.
