I'll be posting my monthly graph of lake levels and flow rates for the Lake of the Ozarks tomorrow, or Monday, but as you will see despite the high water levels in other lakes and rivers, the Lake of the Ozarks is operating at normal levels. How can this be you may ask?
What's so special about the Lake that it is spared the ravages of flooding while the Osage and Missouri Rivers flood and Truman Lake is busting at the seams?
With the 30 day outlook calling for a wetter than normal June, things may not improve much.
The answer as to why the Lake of the Ozarks seems out of step with other bodies of water in the area is not a simple one, but it is important. It has everything to do with the very different purposes for which the two dams, Truman and Bagnell were built, who controls them, and the river basins they serve. I've spent a little time explaining it here if you're interested.
It would seem the time is here. It was inevitable that someone would try to design, produce, and sell an all electric wet-bike and the electric vehicle company Nikola has done it. At lest to the point where you can get on a waiting list (for free no less!)
Nikola (as in Nikola Tesla, but not as in Tesla vehicles) has been making ATV style electric vehicles for some time with promise that a water sport vehicle was coming. Well, it's here. There are a lot of questions I have as an armchair boat designer and engineer, not the least of which is how do make an all electric power plant safe in the water, but for now, let's see what Nikola is saying about their new toy.
Not much. But on my concerns about safety, Nikola seems to be touting the IP68 standard of waterproofing. This waterproofing standard is not really made for things like wetbikes, but more for small devices like mobile phones and requires a device be able to handle being fully immersed in up to 1.5m (a smidgen under 5 feet) of water. So the Wav is rated about the same as your Galaxy S10 for operation under water. Of course, that's just fine for the occasional roll-over and usage and I'm guessing that Nikola is banking on their design never sinking below the waterline.
Another point feature is "Instant Torque". That's an interesting angle. Instant torque is a feature of all electric motors. In actuality all electric motors exhibit maximum torque at zero velocity (which is why train locomotives tend to use electric motors powered by generators driven by diesel engines). So I suppose it's reasonable to equate that to "instant". But what does that mean for the performance of the wetbike? Answer: That depends. There's nothing inherently performance enhancing about having maximum available torque at the prop (or impeller in this case). It's can be an advantage, but many other factors would need to be examined in the design of the propulsion to determine any specific performance boost. But that's a completely different discussion.
The Wav apparently goes full digital for display with a twelve inch 4K dashboard but from the image below it looks like you could watch a movie or something.
And then there's my favorite, the front LED headlamp (not a bad idea), and the rear taillights. Taillights? Do they work like brake lights or somethings?
There are no other details regarding performance, run time, charge time or pricing at this time.
But you say hey! Why so snarky? I mean these guys are doing it aren't they? Sure, but I think you're going to have to bring a lot more to the table then just an electric power plant, better storage and a curious hull, to get people to buy these things. Take a lesson from Tesla, Nikola. Early adopters want a compelling reason to go electric. Elon Musk gave them super-cruise and auto-pilot with brain melting performance. What does the Wav provide but novelty and dubious performance enhancements? I wish them luck though, I really do, but the consumer is king on this battlefield.
Looking at some statistics, I suppose a bit of clarification is needed. This page is linked by a few of my owned domains, and you may have arrived here by any number of them, depending on your search results. To be clear, this web page is the home of the following web domains:
OzarkDragon.com : Look at any map of the lake and it's pretty easy to see it resembles a serpent of some sort and for many years the marketing efforts for the Lake of the Ozarks tried to use the "Magic Dragon" moniker for advertising. In fact, the annual car show and the Lake Ozark Fire Department still use it to this day. While I've always felt the imagery was appropriate, it never really took off as a brand. I always liked it though and will continue to promote this website under that primary web domain.
Trailscope.com: Another domain I've owned for some time that was intended for a project involving virtual tours. It would have been sort of a Google Streetview for trails and rivers. But as the old saying goes, if you have a good idea there are already a hundred people working on it, but if you have a great idea a thousand people are working on it, and Google already has some hiking trails on Streetview, but no rivers. I'm looking at doing rivers as something to do in retirement but the rig is quite complex. But that's another story, for another blog, for another day.
TravelOzarks.com: A fairly obvious domain good to cyber-squat. This domain is in recognition that while I primarily focus on the Lake of the Ozarks, my interests really run throughout the Ozark region. Another blog, another day...
Those are the three primary web domains that will bring you to this page and the reason for their existence. Just in case you were wondering. B
Lake levels, lake levels. Is that all this blog is about?
What can I say, I have a life. Rest assured, there's plenty more to talk about and we'll be getting to it this year. But for now...
January is the official start to the lake draw down. When Ameren allows lake levels to fall below "normal" in order to accommodate shoreline work, and prepare for the coming spring rains. Spring is coming. My black tail hawks are working on their nest, and the groundhogs have started sniffing around for a place to start a new tunnel under my house, so I know it's coming.
The lake has already started it's inexorable fall to the March low. Below is the hourly detail with the grey line being the new moving five year average.
And below the daily candlestick
All in all, nothing remarkable and a nice steady incremental start to the draw down.
Another year has come and gone, and with the annual draw down to prepare the lake for 2019 only days away, let's take a look at what happened in 2018.
Here's a quick summary graph that I made to try and put things in perspective. The lake is still just a flooded river and water flows in and out constantly. Putting up raw numbers like nearly one and a half trillion gallons of water passing through Bagnell Dam sounds impressive but what can we do to give it real meaning? I've provided some conversions to help get a grasp of just how much water that is. Also, the circle in the middle with percentages indicates Bagnell Dam's operational statistics, how much of the time electricity actually was being generated. The answer is only about 25% of the time.
Operations in flood conditions were negligible, and I doubt the gates were actually open at all, I simply calculate that the maximum flow through the turbines is anything over 37,500cfs (cubic feet per second), but improvements to the turbines may have increased that number. I'll have to revisit that. The more telling number is the 75.8% operational time below 5000cfs, an indication no commercial electrical power is being generated beyond the "house" generators used to power the Osage Energy Plant itself. This is a very low amount of power generation, and may be due to the extensive work being done this year on Bagnell. In short, Bagnell Dam was probably operating at a loss this year.
As far a lake levels themselves are concerned, this year is probably the most unremarkable we've had since 2012. Levels were right along the guide curve with no surprises. Below is the candlestick summary for each month of the year.
Below is the daily candlestick for the entire year.
And finally, a candlestick summary of every month from 2010 to 2018.
Here's a fun chart. This is a candlestick chart of each month for 8 years (2010-2017).
Click on image to enlarge
or click here for a full size downloadable image
A couple of interesting statistics. The eight year high level and low level occurred only three months apart of each other and the difference was nearly 11 feet! That's quite dramatic for a body of water that most people's experience is less than a foot difference during the summer months. December 28, 2015's high of 663.83 was followed on March 9th, 2016 with a low of 652.92.
As for how much water passed through the gates of Bagnell Dam in those 8 years? About 19,725 BILLION gallons, or technically 19.725 Trillion gallons. That sounds like a lot of water, and it is, but comparatively speaking it's not as much as you might think. By the numbers, it took eight years for enough water to pass through Bagnell Dam to cover an area the size of Missouri to a depth of only about one and half feet (1.36 to be precise), but it was enough that it could raise the level of Lake Michigan four feet. To really put it in perspective? Water flowing over the Canadian Horseshoe falls of Niagara could pass that same amount of water in one year and fifteen days. But it's a tremendous amount of water no matter how you look at it.
Remember, while blowing your leaves into the lake is not illegal for homeowners it is frowned upon and can lead to a loss of "lake access privileges". Please dispose of your leaves properly this season.
