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Lake Lanier water level inches closer to record high

The rain keeps coming.

As the rain keeps coming - and there's more on the way tomorrow - Lake Lanier's water level keeps rising.

The lake has already recorded its second-highest level ever and continues to inch closer to a record that has stood for over 55 years.

After reaching 1,076.34 feet above mean sea level (a measurement of lake fullness) last Friday, after some more rain last night it's now up to a new second-highest-ever level of 1,076.50.

That brings it within about eight inches (0.65 feet MSL) of the record of 1,077.15 set in 1964.

RELATED: Lake Lanier swells to second-highest water level ever

“I’ve never seen it this high. I’ve been here 25 years from up north," Lara Dressel, a Cumming resident, told 11Alive's Hope Ford earlier this week.

Kenny Haddock, the general manager of Habersham Marina, said it's "the worst I've seen it" since he came here in 1984.

Two weeks ago, on Feb. 3, the level was exactly a "full pool" of 1,071, meaning it has seen a staggering five-foot rise in just that time period.

It tracks with a similarly rapid rise last February, when the lake reached a high of 1,076.1 on Feb. 24, which was up from just over 1,071 on Feb. 10.

RELATED: Lake Lanier's water levels rise 2 feet in just the past week

While that high fell just short of becoming the second-highest level on record, the current mark would officially surpass the level of 1,076.20 reached in April 1977.

11Alive meteorologist Chris Holcomb says that while the recent rise is mainly due to rain, other factors - such as the limit engineers face in being able to release water without flooding the areas below - also contribute.

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