| The Labor Day holiday weekend is upon us, and we are all looking forward to a long weekend spent with family, friends, and some great times by the lake. With this comes the question – how will the water look this weekend?
Unfortunately, there is no water quality “crystal ball” to look into to predict the future (wouldn’t that be great?), but we do have the benefit of a strong monitoring network paired with scientific data to help us assess lake conditions.
Here’s what we know:
- The good news: there were no blooms reported this week (survey week running August 26- September 1).
- The not so good news: the average secchi disk water clarity readings have been dropping – from 5.4 meters last week, to 4.3 meters this week. This may indicate an increase in algal production in the water column.
We’ve also had a stretch of breezy, windy days which keeps surface waters fairly well mixed. We most often see blooms on calm, windless days – so conditions have not been ideal for cyanobacteria to form surface blooms.
As we head into the weekend, we hope this trend of “no blooms” continues. However, on Canandaigua Lake, the Labor Day holiday weekend and the week following has historically given us some of our first major bloom activity of the season. Again, no crystal ball here – but the potential for isolated blooms to pop up is increasing. Please continue to use your visual indicators when recreating in the lake – look for signs of surface streaking of algae, surface scums, or green/discolored water. These areas should be avoided.
Have a great weekend everyone. Enjoy the Ring of Fire with your environmentally-friendly LED flares this year! If you’re still looking for something to do this weekend, check out the festivities at the Seneca Heritage Day on Saturday, September 3rd from 2-4 pm. |
