Water Level Illustrations

1. Water levels prior to rain event.

water level prior to rain event

2. During a rain event, water infiltrates in green spaces and runoff begins to raise the lake's water level. Water starts to discharge through the outlet.

water level during rain event

3. As the rain event continues, the infiltration from the green space begins to raise the groundwater level. The water from the lake also seeps into the soils below, adding additional water to the groundwater.

rain event 3

4. Immediately after the rain event, the lake water level begins to be lowered by way of the outlet, but the groundwater level remains high, as water continues to move from the surface of the groundwater.

water level lowers

5. When multiple rain events occur, the groundwater continues to rise, resulting in a high groundwater level that can reach basement floors.

multiple rain events

6. it can take weeks for groundwater and surface water levels to drop to normal levels after a large rain event. It can take even longer to recede to normal levels if there are a series of rain events.

water recedes

7. If no other storm events occur and there is no additional groundwater inflow following a larger storm event (100-year storm), the water levels in Silver Lake will drop to normal levels within roughly a month. Groundwater levels can take longer to return to a norma level. A series of snow and/or rain events can raise groundwater levels too.

returntonormallevels