Lake Keowee - FL of the north

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Langdon
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Lake Keowee - FL of the north

Steve Campbell, who visits frequently from SC, alerted me to something I didn't know last night: Lake Keowee (near Clemson) has a heater. Duke Energy has a nuclear plant on the lake and the mid-lake area around the plant has been even recently a balmy 60+ degrees.

However, I haven't seen anywhere that looks like a suitable launching place in the general area. Like another Duke project, Lake Norman, public parks and launches are surprisingly few.

https://windsportatlanta.com/wiki/Lake_Keowee#Map
fishing report source: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Acrs_OujpswJ:https://www.anglersheadquarters.com/blogs/ahq-report/tagged/lake-keowee&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1&vwsrc=0

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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

My roommate at Clemson got his diving certification and the final test location was the “hot hole” at Keowee. They would dive down to the plant cooling water outfall and ride the ~90° water “jet” as far as it would take them then swim back and repeat.

I didn’t realize such a large area of the lake would stay warm.

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Langdon
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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

That would help with the dreaded dome effect on those days where the air is warm

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webguy
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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north
Langdon wrote:

That would help with the dreaded dome effect on those days where the air is warm

And if the wind does die, we can go dive sledding. Biggrin

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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

Why not just build a nuclear plant near Lake Lanier?

What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.

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Roland
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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north
Randy wrote:

Why not just build a nuclear plant near Lake Lanier?

Too bad they took down the GA Tech reactor. Could have relocated it to where they store the sailing gear at the LLSC. Think how nice it would be for the kiddies in Optis sailing around in bath water even in the winter.

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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

"Randy wrote:
Why not just build a nuclear plant near Lake Lanier? "

Randy has a great idea. Sure would be nice to have 60ºF water in winter.

Barrett

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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

I think just a small quantity of Chernoblium would make the lake summertime hot all year round.

What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.

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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north
Randy wrote:

I think just a small quantity of Chernoblium would make the lake summertime hot all year round.

Calvinium? (I'm going to get banned for this one)

--- The Arrogant Jerk: Crabby and irritable since 1998.

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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

So I've sailed here once a few years ago, in a February. I was anxious to try it out for its reported warmer waters. Nearest access is called Warpath Landing.

Park and access to open water wasn't ideal for board sailors, but park seems pretty new, and for all I know it may have been developed further since my visit ~ 2017(?) Two launch spots on either side of the little isthmus the roadway terminates on necessitated difficult upwind tacking - at least for me as a fin sailor. Foilers may not be quite so challenged. Water depths seem pretty clear rather close to shorelines, and getting out of those coves needs enough tacking that you'd want to use all the lake width you can find.

Water temps were certainly moderated though from nearby nuclear station. (I'd really be pulling these numbers from the ether...but for perspective, I might guess water temps around mid-upper 60s as opposed to lower 50s thanks to outflow?). The scuba divers of the area might have the best intel on what water temps actually are...(but I think they actually dive awfully close to source of warm outflow)

This section of lake has nice room north to south, but it's east-west width is relatively narrow, so the westerlies I sailed were definitely gusty/fluky (but I"ve certainly sailed worse).

Anyway, hopefully the attached map will atleast give you a name for further research - and a little overview.

ps: here's one youtube vid of drone footage of the landing. There may be better out there, this was just my first hit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH-70lxMdA8

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webguy
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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

Well, from the drone video, you certainly can see the warm water - that's where the fog is.

I guess the key question is how far the warm water extends and, as Langdon wonders, if it warms the other parts of the lake enough in spring to avoid the dreaded dome.

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zzholt
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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

whoa! check this site out! I haven't seen this site before whenever I've searched for local lake temps. Don't know anything about their sources or the varacity of their info, but how cool if its thermal imagery of Lake Keowee, in particular, holds water!? ( Lol )

https://lakemonster.com/lake/SC/Lake%20Keowee-water-temperature-1068 (lake keowee specific page)

https://lakemonster.com/state (lake monster's country map. choose your state, then your lake alphabetically)

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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

Says Lake Lanier is 44. Says Toona is 39 though. Seems odd Toona would be that much colder, though I do recall a friend of mine putting a thermometer into the water once in the winter years ago and it read mid 30's. I don't recall Lanier ever being below 44. Says Bull Sluice lake (the small reservoir on the river) is 36. I guess I could go and check for myself.

What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.

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zzholt
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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

yeah. I've been surprised too at the variability in their reported temps even among seemingly similar lakes in SC. I've sent them a note to inquire about how/where they got their reading for Hartwell, at least, and so far have gotten a decently encouraging auto-response that they may be communicative come the weekdays. Here's to hoping Good (and either way, I still found that thermal image of Keowee pretty cool to see)

to follow through...(for the curious)....here's an updated edit (2/25/21) ------

so I"ve actually had a couple of exchanges with the folks at Lake Monster. They sound like a new, still developing, and enthusiastic bunch. Here's what they told me about their lake temp postings: "our temperatures are derived from a blended thermal satellite imagery reading covering the entire surface of the lake. On our app (available in the app store) our users can also provide us with water temperature readings while they are out on the lake." And also: "Right now, like you've noticed, the data isn't always getting updated daily. Right now we are at the mercy of our ability to extract and process cloud-free, high quality data. However, we are currently in the process of updating our data pipelines and creating a blended product that has multiple opportunities per day to retrieve water temps, but yes due to the latency of the data, its not likely going to be a temperature recorded from that day (ultimate goal is to project/forecast water temps like we do with air temps for weather so we will have that)."

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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

IN RESPONSE TO: "Lake Lanier is 44. Says Toona is 39 though. Seems odd Toona would be that much colder"

My opinion: Lake Lanier is deep enough for the water tor stratify, forming warm layers toward the surface in warm weather. The deep water doesn't mix with the surface and stays cold all summer. Discharge at the dam is from cold deep water, which also tends to maintain the stratified layers. In the Fall, the surface water cools off, and typically mixes with the colder bottom water when the surface and deep water approach temperature equilibrium. A windy day can cause premature mixing. Due to the depth, and large volume of water, I've never measured the winter water at temperature at Lanier to be lower than the low 40's.

By contrast, Lake Alltoona is relatively shallow, and has only about a third the water volume of Lanier, so it can cool into the 30's when there's a prolonged period of cold, cloudy weather. Although Allatoona is almost as deep as Lanier at its deepest point, I think much of the Lake is far shallower allowing it to cool faster.

Barrett

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Roland
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Re: Lake Keowee - FL of the north

Deep water helps. His water is WARMER than Allatoona. The Arctic Windsurfer, ladies and gentlemen

https://www.facebook.com/arcticwindsurfer/videos/415914742801989/

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zzholt