.jpg "A view of Lake Chapala Mexico")
Quoting below from a recent article in the Colony
Reporter, we can see abundant rainfall is filling up Lake Chapala
during our current rainy season
Lake Chapala swells toward 32-year record
FRIDAY, JULY
30 2010 14:45 DALE HOYT PALFREY
Experts keeping an
eye on Mother Nature predict a bountiful 2010 rainy season that could push Lake Chapala
close to maximum capacity for the first time in more than three decades. With
heavy precipitation continuing through this week, flood and landslide alerts
are out for the Chapala lakeshore and
elsewhere in the region.
Just six weeks into
the summer rainy season, the lake has already regained 77 centimeters in level,
putting it on a par with the high mark registered last October. By
comparison, the lake rose just 39 cm. during the entire 2009 wet cycle. Lake Chapala
tends to rise most dramatically from mid-August through late September.
Late last week,
National Water Commission (Conagua) regional chief Raul Antonio Iglesias issued
a personal prediction that the lake will rise an additional one to two meters
this year, hitting above “Cota 97” on the lake elevation scale before the rains
subside. It has not ascended to that mark since 1978.”
“Lake
Chapala data - Conagua data for July 29 showed Chapala
standing at 71.7 percent total holding capacity, with a water storage volume of
5.6 billion cubic meters (5,664 Mm3) at Cota 95.783. Lake
water currently extends over a surface area of 111,561 hectares (ha.)
At 100 percent capacity the lake holds 7,897 Mm3 of water
at Cota 97.80. The total measurement of the lakebed is 114,000 ha.
Figures for July 22, 2010 are the highest for that date in
more than a decade.
Rainfall measurements recorded at Conagua’s Chapala weather station total more than 350 millimeters
during this month. At press time, runoff from the Lerma River
was gushing into the lake at a rate exceeding 200 cubic meters per second. The
11 principal dams located in the Lerma-Chapala watershed were registered at an
average of nearly 80 percent holding capacity, compared to just over 50 percent
one year ago.”
Do you know what the
National Bird of Mexico
is called?
Note: Can you see the likeness of the bird in the lush green mountainside? Mexico’s National Bird is called the Cara Cara
and those of us living in Lake Chapala like to think that Mexico’s
National Bird is on guard looking after Lake Chapala.
Given the abundance of rainfall this season, it appears our cara cara is doing
a great job.
Because of the cara cara's abilities to both scavenge
and hunt, and its remarkably regal stature, they were highly esteemed by the
Mayan and Aztecs, as well as other indigenous cultures of Meso-America. High
priests and kings wore ceremonial headdresses and capes made from the plumage
of cara caras and claws were adorned as jewelry by South American and Central
American native people.
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