Lake level

The lake level is rising sharply this week after falling for a bit.

It is great to see. I have family comig soon and I want the Lake to look good. It is also a joy to me to see the lake in great shape, not a dried up pond.

I noticed that too. Given the renewed amount of lirio and debris I assume they opened the dams again. This looks to be a particularly bad year for the lirio. I hope they can get on top of it.

Unfortunately doc, the malecons look like crap with the lirio and garbage that floated in.

So true....seems to be a worldwide problem. I think the Malecon especially should be kept in top shape. Labor to do that is cheap but the outgoing mayor is not about to spend any money. Let's hope the new Mayor, whoever he is, will take the Malecon to heart. It can be such a nice walk.

Yesterday, bull dozers were putting piles of trash from the beach area in Chapala into trucks. They are obviously trying but there are overwhelmed by the increased garbage.

At the Chapala malecon, workers have been bulldozing lirio into trucks and hauling it away for months now. If I remember correctly, the govt. bought a special machine for that. They were making good-but-slow progress the last time I was there, but alas, it does remind me of the old saying about shoveling "manure" against the tide.

It's like peeing in the ocean....wasting mills of pesos...they need to fix the problem at the source and consider re spraying

I agree, they need to get it at the source.

The lake continues to rise and has surpassed last year's high. It just proves the point that we don't necessarily have to get a good rainy season "directly overhead" to affect the lake. While not a lot of rain in Ajijic, there have been many floods up the Lerma river basin this year.

The lake is now way higher than last years high with another 3 weeks (or more) to go. It is approaching the high's of 2010 and will probably surpass it. I took this picture at the Ajijic Malecon this morning.

Given all the sad pictures of flooding up north I would assume the dams will be opened again and we will get more water.

Trailrunner wrote:Given all the sad pictures of flooding up north I would assume the dams will be opened again and we will get more water.

I'm just glad they built the Malecon on the Ajijic waterfront. I remember the year all the park was flooded. Sad.

Yes, that was 2010, just before they built the new malecon. This year could be the highest the lake has been in what "over 20 or 30 years years"?


Other than 2010 does anyone know when the last time the water totally covered the gravel parking lot beside the pier? I'm thinking over 20 years ago.

All I remember is some year between 1975 and 1980 it was up and over the south door of The Old Posada and up to 16 de septiembre on Morelos.
That year it did serious damage to a lot of lake front properties all along the north shore.

It would be nice to see the high for all years but I don't know where it could be.

cypress wrote:It would be nice to see the high for all years but I don't know where it could be.

https://www.ceajalisco.gob.mx/contenido/chapala/
https://www.ceajalisco.gob.mx/contenido/chapala/chapala/niveles.html

Hey, thanks for these links. It looks like the highest year since 1979 was 2008, not 2010, at 96.72. We are currently sitting at 95.78 so have almost one meter to go to beat the 40 year high. I'm not sure we will get another meter. Slainte, you are probably thinking of 1976 when it was 98.73.

From 1944 to 1955 the lake plummeted to the lowest levels ever recorded. Lower then 2002. I wonder what caused that? Anyone know?

I think it was Rod Collins of Lagunanet, who remembers as a kid walking on the Ajijic pier, when the water was up to his ankles. Now if you look at the Ajijic pier, you can see that it was added onto and is higher than it was originally.

I do not remember whether he said the pier was higher like is now when he walked out on it or not. I bet Camile (bad Spelling) the owner of Mom's Deli and Rod's younger sister might remember the high waters in 1976 or so.

Yeah Pete that was about the time Tex Collins (Rod's father) moved here and built their home as my neighbors.  There were a couple of years in the 70's when you had high water for several months, that you couldn't even get close to the pier.  As I said, the water was up to the back door of the Old Posada.
I think it was the year that the Eagers came here from Canada and bought the Old Posada....'75, or '76

CanuckBob wrote:It looks like the highest year since 1979 was 2008, not 2010, at 96.72.

Yes. I moved here in April 2008 during dry season and by the end of rainy season, the pre-malecon Ajijic park was completely under water, with little lake waves lapping at the doors of the Old Posada and the then "Roberto's", I think. It was definitely 2008.

Fast Forward: Just yesterday I drove my car down Colon/Morelos in Ajijic and cut left at the pier to drive east over the lakeshore and was surprised to see the water level. Nice!

(I will leave the 1970's lake level history to our wise elders.)

Joco malecon was inundated that year too, one day there were people kayaking between the mostly submerged picnic tables on the other side of the walkway.

In the gov office in Chapala there is an old black and white photo of what they say was the highest level of the lake, it shows little waves lapping at the steps of the church.

5 or 6 years ago it was up to the sidewalk at Yves old place by the pier

The water was so high in the 1967 to 76 high water points that according to the owners of the old Posada, the water level reached part way up the bar itself inside the Old Posada. In the 1990s they would point to a mark on the bar, maybe 18 inches above the floor and say that this mark was the high level mark reached during the high water days of 1976 and/or earlier.

I remember that, as the south entrance was all sand bagged and sitting by the south windows was like sitting along side an aquarium.
We had to swim to the banos but nobody cared and the beer and tequila kept flowing.    Never got to where you couldn't "bend an elbow".

Now those were "the good ole days"

 The Underwood"s (Old Posada proprietors) bailed out about '73 or '74, moved to SMA, and it stayed empty for a year or two until the Eager's arrived. The flooding gave the place a lot of "character".