Surface Water Temperature: ~77.0 F
Water Clarity: ~5.3 Feet
Lake Level: 802.8 Feet above sea level
Lake Level Relative to Weir: -0.7 Feet
Observations: Monday (8/15/22), The water clarity has decreased ~2.3 feet to ~5.3 feet and the surface water temperature decreased ~3.6 F to ~77.0 F over the last week. The lake surface water temperature was significantly colder due to the colder weather we have been having. The water clarity decrease was most likely due to an increase in algae and dead organic debris in the water column. The lake has had a partial mixing event down to 8 m (~26.4 Feet) in the last few days. The lake is stratified at 9m (~30.0 Feet). The lake looked very good today! See picture on the left.
There was an increase in visible algae in the water column today at most of our HAB monitoring locations compared with a week ago. It looks like green dots in the water column. We did not see any areas with surface algae scum. No Aphanizomenon clumps today. Mostly we found Anabaena and Gloeotrichia (pictures below):
However, we are now in the peak period over the next 4-6 weeks for blue-green algae blooms. We had several isolated near shore blue-green algae blooms reported to us by lake residents over the last few days (see pictures below). These blooms usually only lasted a day or two. We reported these blue-green algae blooms to the DEC NYHABS reporting site. The DEC NYHABS site is your most up to date source for HABs information containing both public and our HABS reports. https://nysdec.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=ae91142c812a4ab997ba739ed9723e6e
The DEC recommends that you, your family, and pets avoid contact with water that contains blue-green algae like Anabaena and Gloeotrichia. Everyone should be very careful to watch for blue-green algae blooms for the next few weeks.
The lake has had a partial mixing event down to 8 m (~26.4 Feet) in the last few days. Today (Monday 8/15/22) the lake is stratified at 9m (30.0 Feet). You can see this by the divergence of the temperature and dissolved oxygen graph lines for the various depths on the left. The dissolved oxygen at 9 m (~30.0 feet) was only 0.40 mg/L low enough to weaken the phosphorus iron bond releasing phosphorus into the deep bottom water again. Only about 6 acres of bottom sediment is 9.0 m or deeper. Surface water temperature was ~77.0 F and bottom water temperature was ~73.8 F. 1-meter equals 3.3 feet.
Always use your own visual assessment before making contact with the lake water at this time of year as the blue-green algae situation can change daily if not hourly. Please regularly check the DEC HABs alert map for more detailed updates on Honeoye Lake HABs alerts:
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- Click on this link for the Winter 2022 HLWTF Newsletter:
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- Click on this link to see the new HLWTF Honeoye Lake Watershed Storm Water Took Kit if you are planning any storm water projects on your property:
- Click on this link for "Honeoye Lake: 2021 State of the Lake article":
Draft Aeration Planning Project Report, Public Information Meeting Presentation, and WebEx recording posted on the HLWTF web site:
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