That's live data from my personal weather station and if you click on it it will take you to my personal weather station webpage on Weather Underground. I'm getting ready to 'retire' the original Netbook2Chartplotter at least as a chartplotter and it will have other duties such as logging data from the weather station and sending it over the internet. I'll blog over the winter on it's replacement, a Lenovo Win 8.1 Pro tablet and how I'll use my old one for new duties as well as an emergency backup.
UPDATE Oct. 1 ,2014
I have to give credit where credit is due although it's really a better late than never kinda deal. The city after 5 years has finally fixed the boat ramp approach while they we resurfacing the parts of South Concord that were underwater long periods of time this year. It's definitely a lot easier to get a trailer in there now.
Anyway to the main gist of this post, the continued environmental degradation to Credit Island Harbor which is not only a major cause of silting especially along the shoreline but also how lack of bank protection like on the island itself is wiping out the remaining trees, the only bank protection between the harbor and the road bed. First up the area around the boat ramp and dock
This area was almost entirely covered with asphalt a few years ago
And where did all that asphalt and gravel end up? It's all in the harbor just off shore .....
These are looking upstream towards River Drive. You can see some of the emergency bank reinforcement the City put in.
These are from between the boat ramp and the bicycle bridge and there is some heavy damage here with about 1-2 feet thick layer of soil removed the prolonged flooding last two years exposing the tree roots and causing the remaining trees to die or start leaning towards the water. Lot's of yellow and brown leaves which in early August indicates that the trees are dying. Even the green leaves are more of a lime or yellow-green than the dark green leaves on the trees further from the water.
When they built the bicycle bridge they restored the old bank levels and then rip rapped it so it kind of juts out and is higher than the bank just upstream. This is the outside of a bend in a side channel so this is where the current is the strongest when it comes over the road/causeway at the entrance to the island. An eddy forms here whenever the water is high and it's really eaten away at the bank and it's dug clear back to the road bed.
Most of the rest are downstream of the bicycle bridge and show all the yellowing and browning of leaves of dying trees as well how many of them are leaning and will fall into the harbor in the near future. A lot of these trees aren't going to make it unfortunately and the bank erosion and silting of the harbor will get even worse and happen even faster
Here you can see where a mud bar is forming just before it narrows before it gets to the main channel of the river
This area is going to look very very different in 5-10 years if something isn't done and soon. It's a problem that illustrates the effects of Climate Change that has caused a 37% increase in rainfall in the upper Midwest as well has caused the frequency of 17ft or greater floods (Moderate to Severe flooding) to increase by a whooping 300+% in the last 22 years.
