More on Low Water on Lake Koshkonong

What goes down must come up

Some folks may be wondering whether Lake Koshkonong water levels could be lower than desirable in the spring and summer of 2013 due to the unusually low water levels that we are experiencing now.  

As we have discussed in several of the annual meetings, Lake Koshkonong is a "wide spot in the Rock River".  

This means that the Lake, as large as it is, does not store a large amount of water compared to the volume of the floods that come down from the entire Rock River watershed upstream.  

If you look at the water level records at the USGS Lake Koshkonong Gage for the past 60 days, you'll see that even minor rainstorms and small increases in the discharge of the river have produced upward "spikes" in the water level record.  

These discharges that we've seen over the last month or two are very small compared to typical spring floods.  

Although an extremely severe drought in the spring of 2013 as possible, we believe it is almost certain that water levels will rise in Lake Koshkonong and the Rock River next spring, as they always do.