Beaver Run Story

Since the beaver dam fell - I posted on this a few weeks back, our little stream that runs across the lot still fascinates. I thought I would write a quick post on how Beaver Run changes with the weather, as I kept an eye on it for a few days while there was snow on the ground.

This snow fell about a week earlier, but obviously the weather had stayed cold enough that the stream was frozen over and still in its banks. On Christmas night a rain storm moved in, dropping about an inch of rain overnight. I could hear the sound of the stream filling and then rushing along over the little cascades down the hill.

I should mention that the weather reports said that there was the equivalent of an inch or more of rain already on the ground in the snow - the combination of cold weather and barometric pressure producing a ratio of about 15 inches of snow being equivalent to one inch of rain. So there was a lot of water that needed to clear out of the hollow and from the hills around us.

The stream rose and washed a lot of the snow off the banks. Down stream, at the Hawksbill Creek in Luray, the water was really high, and I will post on that tomorrow. Here, above the confluence our watershed, is smaller, but there is still plenty of ground to drain.

Finally, a look at the creek on Sunday, after the rain and after a lot of that drainage had gone downstream. The creek was still up and briskly flowing, enough so that the neighborhood still had the sound of small waterfalls in the background.

Not to get preachy on this, but that's a very pleasant and relaxing sound, if you haven't ever taken the time to sit still and enjoy it.