Mt. Storm Lake

Mt. Storm Lake in Tucker County, West Virginia, is one of the American East's most unusual freshwater dive sites—a large industrial cooling lake created by the Allegheny Power Mt. Storm Power Station, whose warm water discharge from the power plant's condenser cooling system creates year-round swimming and diving conditions in a high-elevation West Virginia mountain setting where surface temperatures would otherwise limit freshwater diving to the warmer months. The thermal discharge from the power plant maintains water temperatures significantly above ambient in areas near the discharge points, creating a microclimate within the larger lake that extends the viable diving season considerably. The Allegheny Highlands of West Virginia, where Mt. Storm Lake sits at elevation in one of the state's most remote and scenically dramatic areas, create a physical context for this unusual lake that combines the wild Appalachian mountain landscape with the industrial reality of a power plant cooling system. The juxtaposition is both jarring and fascinating—a warm lake in cold mountain country, accessible because of the industrial process that would otherwise be irrelevant to recreational divers. This combination of industrial function and recreational opportunity represents a category of dive site that requires a certain appreciation for the unexpected to value fully. For beginner divers in West Virginia and the broader Appalachian region, Mt. Storm Lake's extended diving season is its primary practical advantage. The ability to dive comfortably in a mountain lake in November or March, when all other regional freshwater sites require either wetsuit commitment to genuinely cold water or abstention from diving until spring, makes Mt. Storm valuable to the regional diving community that would otherwise face a very short active season. Fish life in the lake reflects the unusual thermal conditions. Species that are uncommon or absent in cold West Virginia mountain streams and lakes—particularly those preferring warmer water—inhabit Mt. Storm Lake in numbers that its thermal discharge supports. This creates a biological community somewhat different from typical Appalachian highland lakes, making fish encounters here subtly novel for divers accustomed to the cold-water trout and smallmouth bass typical of the region's natural water bodies. Water clarity at Mt. Storm Lake depends on the seasonal patterns that the discharge's thermal effects and the lake's overall dynamics create. At its clearest, the lake provides visibility adequate for productive freshwater diving, and the mountain scenery surrounding the lake—visible in all directions from the water's surface—creates the Allegheny Highlands landscape context that makes even a utilitarian industrial cooling lake a site worth visiting in the high country of West Virginia's eastern highlands.