Cloudy Pool Water After Rain? How to Maintain Your Pool Before and After a Storm
For those living in four-season climates, pool season is often pretty short. You want to take advantage of as many swim days as possible.
So, when you see rain in the forecast, it can be frustrating! Sure, rain is critical in the summer for plants and wildlife, but for pool owners, your pool chemistry may take a hit depending on the severity.
It is quite normal for water to become cloudy after a rainstorm or for your pool to not look its best. However, with a post-storm routine and even some pre-storm maintenance, we can get your pool back to its crystal-clear glory and back to doing cannonballs in no time!
How Rain Causes Cloudy Water
On the surface, rainwater is harmless. There is nothing wrong with playing in the rain or even drinking it. Even for a pool, it is not directly harmful to swim in rainwater (but don’t swim when it is actively raining!).
As rain falls through the sky it collects all the pollutants and nasty stuff that is in the air. Pollen, dust particles, dirt, and other contaminants will collect in raindrops. And where does that all fall into? Your pool, of course! This is what can cause your pool to look a bit hazy and cloudy.
In reality, it isn’t as big of an issue as the cloudiness is mainly due to the “dirty water”. However, it should still be taken care of before it turns into a bigger problem.
Rain Can Also Disrupt Water Chemistry
While rain will make it seem like your water has a problem, it can and most certainly will impact your overall water balance. Rainwater is pretty acidic; on average, rain has a pH of about 5.6 and can go as low as 4.2 if it is acid rain.
So, if there are heavy rainstorms, your pH and total alkalinity (TA) levels can get out of balance during a storm.
In general, rain will also dilute your water. At the very least you’ll have some fresh water in the pool. However, depending on how much rain is falling, it is pretty common for owners to have to drain the pool a bit in order to prevent overflowing and water runoff.
Preparing Before The Storm Hits
There are some steps we can take to mitigate any potential issues before the rain hits. Preparing your pool ahead of time can make a lot of difference when dealing with the aftermath!
Drain Some Water
If the weather forecast is calling for some heavy rain, it may be a good idea to preemptively drain some pool water. For pool owners without an overflow valve, an overflowing pool can cause a ton of issues both to equipment and surrounding deck areas. This will give you a little bit of breathing room when the rain eventually does come.
You’ll only want to drain a few inches to where your pool pump and skimmer can still function normally.
Test and Balance Water
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the best prevention of any potential water issues is to make sure the water is properly balanced in the first place. Testing your water and ensuring all chemistry parameters are leveled will help prevent larger headaches post-storm.
Accuracy is really important here, so it is recommended to use a proper testing kit to determine current chemistry levels.
If you need a guide, here are the recommended levels for each chemistry paramater:
Keep Your Pump and Filter Running
Your pump should be running during the rainstorm. It can catch leaves and debris right away which will save you time and energy when it comes time to clean the pool after the storm has passed.
Just make sure to check it after. Depending on how much debris got passed the skimmer baskets, it may be time for a backwash or filter clean.
Use a Leaf Net
A pool leaf net catches leaves and other debris before it hits and pool and can be super beneficial if you have a lot of trees surrounding the pool. A lot of pool owners use them during the fall and winter time, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to quickly throw the net on before a storm. It definitely can help you in the post-storm cleanup!
Pool Maintenance After the Storm
Once the storm has fully passed and the sun has come back out, it’s time to assess the damage. Even if your pool was perfectly balanced and the cleanest it has ever been, don’t be surprised if your water is still cloudy or hazy. This is completely normal and can be cleared up in no time.
The bigger issues are to look at the pool equipment and surrounding area to make sure no damage has been done. If everything seems OK, then all of your focus and attention can turn to the water itself.
Get your Water Back to a Proper Level
Depending on how much rain has fallen or if you are one of many pool owners that do not have an overflow drain valve, you may need to drain the pool a bit. Again, refer to this guide on draining the pool.
Ideally, it’s recommended that water is at the center of the skimmer’s throat. Anything way above or below that can introduce some suction problems, especially with weir doors in place.
Brush, Skim, and Vacuum the Pool
It’s time for manual labor to start! Hopefully, there isn’t too much to clean out, but the first order of business should be to empty the skimmer baskets and manually remove leaves that happened to fall at the bottom. This will make it easier for the vacuum to get the finer particles left behind.
Next, give the sides and surface a good brushing to disrupt any dirt or grime that happened to stick to it. This may make the pool even more cloudy than it already is, but the filter should do the rest of the work once it is off the pool surface.
Test and Balance Your Water
Bust out the trust testing kit again and run a full set of tests. Depending on how much water has been replaced with fresh rainwater, all chemistry levels have the potential to be off-level.
Once the tests are completed and you know your current readings, dump in the recommended chemicals based on the needs of the pool.
If your free chlorine (FC) and combined chlorine (CC) levels are showing signs of potential algae growth, it might be a good idea to shock your pool and raise your FC to shock levels. Note that it isn’t necessary to automatically shock the pool, only if there is a problem!
Get Back to Swimming!
If everything goes well and your water levels are balanced, the cloudiness should dissipate fairly quickly. After all, it was pretty much just the dirt from the rain and not anything serious.
As pool owners, rain can be an annoying few days, but it shouldn’t be able to take your pool out of commission for weeks at a time. Keep your levels in check at all times and the pool party should be back up and running in no time!