The Bear Lake Spring
By Bryce Nielson, The Cisco Kid
As you walk outside you can now feel the warmth of the
sun. It may be approaching 80F as the
rest of the valleys are broiling with temperatures up to 100F. Memories of four feet of unending snow are
slowly leaving your mind.
Do you remember Spring?
If you are like me, you can’t define when it was or much about it. I remember putting my garden in only to have
the seeds sit in cold soil. I am still
waiting for some of them to come up. I
was concerned how the raspberry growers would fare with the near freezing
temperatures in early June. I remember
some nice days but during that time I was focused on watching Bear Lake rise to
its maximum manmade level. I fretted
about how a lake with thin beaches would change the way the summer visitors
acted. Then summer arrived with the warm rainless days that persist now.
The Bear Lake Valley has never been known for its beautiful
springs. People think that it’s the
elevation, bad luck or miserable weather systems but the reason for no spring
weather is in front of us. We have all
looked at the valley as we come off the Logan Canyon summit on our way home. If you think about it, what we actually see,
is a valley of water.
The Lake covers up
to 72,000 surface acres (the Brianhead fire just recently passed 50,000 surface
acres) or 112 square miles. I don’t know
how much flat or gently sloping land there is around the lake but it is
insignificant when compared to the Lake. Bear Lake is responsible for the weather
here. In April and May, is it retaining
the cold of the previous winter months.
By the time it warms up it is summer and spring is long gone. Our summers are not hot with the Lake’s air
conditioning keeping days typically in the 80’s and cool nights. Great for growing raspberries. The warming water starts to evaporate and
untold cubic feet of water vapor goes in the sky. This creates a tumbling effect on the passing
air currents that create thunder clouds and unpredictable winds. These localized events become common in
August as the whole system warms.
September is the least windy month of the year as we drift into autumn,
which is fabulous. With dropping
temperatures as winter comes in the Lake still, keeps us warm. Then the valley fills with fog and we all
know what happens next. The lake level
is 5922.24’ now with over 1000 cfs still coming in. The maximum elevation is 5923.65. Soon evaporation will equal inflow and the
peak will have been reached.
The lack of beaches hasn’t seemed to affected how many
people come here so far. They all love
Bear Lake. So, I guess it is how you look
at it. Long cold winters with no spring
or cool summers and a great fall. If you
are going to live year around at Bear Lake you need to prepare for the
weather. If not, just come up when it is
nice. Let’s all enjoy the variability of
seasons that Bear Lake has to offer.
