Shellpot Creek rises after yesterday's torrential downpours

Yesterday's rain rapidly filled Shellpot creek in the morning.  Here is a picture.

It's back to normal now, but it is always exciting to see and hear it.

Shellpot Creek just starting to fill up from the rain - video

Shellpot Creek is only just getting started today. If Tropical Storm Nicole drops the 2 to 4 inches expected then this creek will rise higher.



The rain will be good to flush out the creek anyway. We just don't need a flood of the backyard like earlier in the summer.

Highest Shellpot Creek levels in 2009 - video

As promised here is video of Shellpot Creek just after the torrential downpours Saturday. The creek was easily the highest it has been in 2009. The USGS agrees, as seen on the following graph. The red circle shows Saturday's peak. It is almost double the peak from May 16th (Note the log scale, click for larger.)


The first video is of the creek just downstream and up to the waterfall at the corner of my house. You can barely see the waterfall because the water is almost level going over it.



The second video is upstream of the waterfall, and also shows how the temporary streams formed by some drainage swales I have in the yard won't drain into a creek that is higher than they are. Gravity still works here.



It was very dramatic and very loud.

Previously on a foamy Shellpot Creek

I took some pictures and a movie of a very foamy Shellpot creek on November 13th. It was the first real rain in a long while and it was flushing the Fall leaves that had accumulated down the creek. This must have added a lot of organic matter to the creek, because that day it was very foamy as the creek level rose at our tiny waterfall and the turbulence increased at our tiny waterfall.

The foam looked like a gelatinous monster trying to climb out of the creek.



The 13th's rain is the first peak on the graph below. The next peaks represent the subsequent rains that washed the foam away and the creek to a clearer level as the rest of the leaves flushed through.
Today's creek is clear and placid and has not frozen in spite of the late cold snap.