TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — Despite the heavy rain we saw on Monday, and even seeing some overflowing creeks, lake levels did not benefit from the rainfall.
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) regulates the water levels and dams throughout the Central Texas area. They said although the recent rains were welcomed, they have not produced much runoff to lakes.
LCRA’s website shows that as of Tuesday morning, Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis were both actually lower than a week ago. Lake Austin was just barely above where it was a week ago.
So, you may wonder, how are lake levels going down when we received rain?
Much of the rain that went into the creeks, never actually made it to the lakes, or didn’t have much of an impact. An LCRA spokesperson said soil moisture conditions were so dry, that much of the rain soaked into the ground. They said we would need several inches of rain to saturate the soil before we would actually see runoff into the lakes.
Due to the high temperatures and minimal rain this summer, in addition to the high demand for water, LCRA’s website stated they expect levels in both water supply lakes, Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan, to keep going down this summer.
LCRA said they monitor the inflows into the Highland Lakes around the clock and are ready to move water downstream through the series of dams if they need to. LCRA said they do not believe they will need to open the floodgates with this week’s rain event.
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