Time to Fill the Swimming Pool

There is a lot of water dumping feeding in to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This is due to the torrential rains in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee.

Look at some of the staggering numbers from yesterday.

Lake Barkley dam was releasing 300,000 cubic feet of water per second (cfs). One cubic foot equals 7.48 gallons. That means that the dam was releasing:

• 2.24-million gallons per second
• 134.6-million gallons per second
• 8.07-billion (with a b) gallons per second

According to Tri-State Pools in Cape Girardeau, the average in ground pool holds 25,000-30,000 gallons of water. This means that 75-90 pools could be filled every second.

The numbers for Kentucky Lake dam are even higher. The dam was releasing 350,000 cfs. That means the dam was releasing:

• 2.61-million gallons per second
• 157-million gallons per minute
• 9.42-billion gallons per hour.

That would fill 90-105 in ground (25,000-30,000 gallon) pools per second.

In comparison, Niagra Falls releases 100,000 cfs.

According to the National Weather Service, the release flow will back down over the next couple of days. By the weekend, TVA plans to have it down to 100,000 cfs.