Wildlife, lake levels and snow

I am beginning to sound like a broken record.  The weather is still terrible and the lake keeps coming up.  It is interesting for me, as a biologist, to see the lake begin to invade  the littoral zone which is choked with trees willows, upland plants and fragmities.  I know that nutrients and plant matter that have been unavailable to aquatic species for years is finally becoming part of the lake.  It will provide hiding areas for small fish, attachment points for invertebrates and as I saw today, food for moose.  Most of it will drown and turn into detritus and drift around the shorelines.  The black muck is not bad, it is just nature's way of making compost.

I keep looking at the mountains wondering when the snow will melt.  After talking to a couple of hydrologists, the physical dynamics were finally made simple enough for me to understand.  A snow pack will not melt until all of it is 0 degrees centigrade and then it all goes at once with no turning back.  A lot of factors effect this process.  Dust or debris on the snow will absorb radiation.  Wind will accelerate the process.  A warm rainstorm with high humidity will also have a significant impact.  Snow does melt a little at the bottom because the earth is warmer but the amount is negligible.  When the snow column begins to collapse, hydrologists measure the amount of water that the soil will absorb and the rest is runoff.  Our melting window is getting narrower.  I suspect lots of people think the flooding is over because the snow is gone around the lake.  We could be so lucky.  That is what makes it so interesting.  No one can predict it.