Lake Levels Rise After Storm

Lake Levels rose after last week's storms, but the lakes are still less than half full, Statesman.com reports.  Although Thursday's storm dropped an inch and a half of rain into Lake Travis, it wasn't enough to bring the Lake back to pre-drought levels.

Lakes Travis and Buchanan gained 35,000 acre-feet of water since Thursday, but they are still a million acre-feet away from being full and 700,000 acre-feet shy of their May average.  In case you aren't familiar with your water terms, an acre-foot is approximately enough water for three average Central Texas households for a year. 

Thursday night's rain did cause Lake Travis to increase by more than twelve inches from before the storm hit to Friday afternoon's height of 639.63 feet.  By Sunday night, it had risen nearly another 3 feet to 641.33 feet, still 30 feet short of its May average.  By contrast, Lake Buchanan only saw about a foot increase and is now at 997.31, 16 feet short of its May average.

The LCRA's river operations center supervisor says that the area needs a season of rain to end Central Texas' drought, a mere overnight storm won't do enough damage.

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