Chocolate milk ocean???

[30adreamers]

New to 30a (4 months)...why is the ocean brown in color??? Lake breaches, etc?
Kurt-seems this may be a good question for you!

 

[justhavinfun]

Eastern Lake and several other coastal dune lakes have opened due to all the rain !

 

[NotDeadYet]

Lake water. All, or nearly all, of the dune lakes have opened up due to all the rain we have had.
Tannin makes the lake water brown.
It's not particularly attractive but it's nothing to worry about. The lakes are supposed to do that.

 

[tsutcli]

The tanin in the dune lake water is brown in color. When the lake breaks through the water flowing into the gulf make the surrounding gulf water appear brown.

 

[Kurt]

Yes all the rain we've been having has sent a lot of fresh, tannin-stained water in to the gulf from the coastal dune lake outflows.

Also, during stormy weather and high surf the water can get quite "muddy". Just stuff stirred up from the bottom and washing in from deeper water.

You can see from this photo at Seagrove about an hour ago it's a little muddy and there is some seaweed close in to shore.

 

[lenzoe]

I love it when the outlets open.

Does anyone track opening dates for the dune lakes? I see the department of public works manually opened Western Lake on 08/01, and an article referencing that says Eastern Lake opened naturally earlier in the week. It would be interesting to see a record of historical openings.

 

[Lake View Too]

I don't know that there has ever been a real record.(County Public works probably has a record of manual openings.) There is a Coastal Dune Lake Advisory Board. They might know. But I haven't heard any from them in quite a while.

Note to 30A Dreamers: just stick around. The Gulf will get crystal clear again soon. And then it might get cloudy. And then it might get seaweedy. And then it might get clear again. And then it might get brownish. And so on...

 

[Douglas]

Yes all the rain we've been having has sent a lot of fresh, tannin-stained water in to the gulf from the coastal dune lake outflows.

How much of the year is the gulf water discolored in the immediate vicinity of Eastern Lake due to lake outflow? Always? Or only after an unusual rain? Or during a certain season? How long does it last?

 

[Lake View Too]

The inlet breaks out sporadically. Sometimes it may take three or four months between breakouts. Recently, we had one breakout, the sandbar built up rather quickly, and the torrential rains filled up the lake so fast that it broke out less than a week later. This is fairly rare to have two breakouts in quick succession. I can only surmise that this unusual amount of rain is washing an unusual amount of tannin into the lake, then into the ocean. It will get dissipated by Issac,and we should have clear water in a week or so. Or, maybe not. Nature can be fickle.

 

[lenzoe]

I don't know that there has ever been a real record.(County Public works probably has a record of manual openings.) There is a Coastal Dune Lake Advisory Board. They might know. But I haven't heard any from them in quite a while.

Thanks. I looked up the advisory board but they haven't posted any meeting minutes for about a year now. If I get interested enough I'll try to call someone.