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AboutFLBS

On this page:

• About the Flathead Lake Sensor Network
• Weather Sensors
• Underwater Sensors
• 
  Lake Surface Level, Conditions, and Recreation Forecast

About the FLBS Sensor Network

YB Hill Weather Cam (control)

FLBS has been collecting weather data since 1938. In 2009, FLBS was awarded a NSF EPSCoR grant that added telemetered above-water environmental sensors and subsurface buoy-based profilers to the existing weather data collection.

FLBS environmental data is updated every 15 minutes.  Subsurface conditions are updated every 3 hours.  

Weather Sensor Network

Location	Time	Air Temp	Rel Hum	Bar Pr	Wind Spd/Dir	Precip
FLBS Hill	2:00p	53.3 F	68.2 %	29.8 in Hg	4.5 mph S	0.00 in
West Shore	2:00p	52.5 F	71.9 %	29.8 in Hg	2.9 mph WSW	0.02 in
YB Point	2:00p	52.5 F			16.3 mph SSW
East Shore	2:00p	51.7 F	70.0 %	29.8 in Hg	2.2 mph NNE	0.00 in
Narrows	2:00p	50.4 F		29.6 in Hg	13.6 mph SSW
Somers	11:45a	54.0 F		29.9 in Hg	2.9 mph SSE
North Shore
MLD Buoy	2:00p	51.0 F	77.3 %	29.7 in Hg	12.1 mph SE
MLN Buoy	1:00p				7.0 mph SSE

Mouseover for site locations. Click for additional weather info.

 

Weather Sensor Graphs

FLBS Weather Graphs
(Open in popup window)

Air Temp °C

Air Temp °F

Relative Humidity

Air Pressure

Realtime Wind Speed

Weekly Precipitation

Looking for underwater data (including water temperature)?
See the graphs below

 

Lake Profiler Subsurface Data Graphs

Select a Site:
Select a site... LMP45 - MidLake North LMP46 - MidLake Deep Both Sites
and Multi-DaySingle-Day

Multi-Day Variables
  Select Variable... All Variables Temp-PAR SpCond-Turbidity DO Chla_Turbidity Chla_DOM  and 
Select Days... 5 30 60

--LMP Units Description--
Temp (°C) = temperature in degrees Centigrade
O2 (mg L-1) = dissolved oxygen in milligrams per liter
O2 (% sat) = percent saturation of dissolved oxygen
Chl (rel. fluor.) = chlorophyll as relative fluorescence units
CDOM (µg L-1) = colored dissolved organic matter in micrograms per liter
Turbidity (β(117°, 700 nm) m-1 sr-1) = volume scattering coefficients, β(θ,y)
with units of m-1 sr-1, where θ is angle and y is wavelength.
Cond (µmhos cm-1) = specific conductance in micromhos per centimeter
PAR (µE m-2 s-1) = photosynthetically active radiation in microeinsteins per square meter per second

Surface Level, Conditions and Recreation Forecast

2890.34 feet

The Flathead Lake water level value is provided by the USGS Water Data site, whose gauging station is located on Salish Point near Polson, MT. Data is read in RDB format here.

Kerr Dam, at the lake outlet in Polson, regulates outflow to maintain Flathead Lake's level between 2,883 and 2,893 feet above sea level. If runoff conditions in the mountains don't warrant flood threats, the lake's level is brought to 2,890 feet by the end of May and to full pool by June 15.