Central and Western NY got hammered yesterday with rain. Some of it was heavy and persistent. I found an App online called "Raindrop." The basic App is free and there's a map where you can just touch anywhere and get the rainfall amounts in that particular area. By doing that, I was able to see that Cayuga Lake up by Aurora/Wells College recorded 3.5" of rain yesterday, while Watkins Glen had around 3/4 of an inch or less.
Seneca Lake is a mess right now. Keuka Outlet, Big Stream, Lodi Creek and more cover fairly large portions of the watershed. I would expect Seneca Lake to be at a low flood stage with plenty of debris-laden muddy water around.
Cayuga Lake's south end is a mess as well. I checked out Myers Park and the water was maybe a foot below the launching docks. Cayuga Lake is supposed to crest tomorrow (Wednesday AM) at a low flood stage, which mainly just affects properties around Ithaca on the lake. There's a little more rain in the forecast, but overall the extended forecast looks promisingly dry! Certainly better than what we had last April/May with rain and non-stop wind.
My contact on Keuka Lake reported to me that they got hit hard. The lake is a big mess.
Owasco Lake drains a relatively large area and will be a mess for awhile.
No word on Skaneateles Lake.
Minor flooding in late-March and April benefits the pike spawn. A lot of rainbow trout in the streams will probably head back down to the lake shortly. As long as the lake gets back down by the end of April and through May, we shouldn't have many lampreys bypass the low-head dam on Cayuga Lake. If that were to happen, DEC would have to schedule a treatment on Cayuga Lake at some point over the next three years.
Stay tuned!