Tag Archives: Lake Travis

Almost a full lake

Posted on May 12, 2007 | Comments Off on Almost a full lake

According to the Lower Colorado River Authority, which keeps track of such things, Lake Travis now stands at 673 feet above mean sea level. That’s eight feet below full, which is not normal for this time of year. What is normal for this time of year is big rains in the lake’s watershed. Some homeowners out there could go from vanished lake to flooding in a span of six months.

Comments Off on Almost a full lake

Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

Tagged ,

Image

The Family Sloop

DSCN0389

Comments Off on The Family Sloop

Posted on April 20, 2007 in Rancho Roly Poly, Sailing, Texana

Tagged , , ,

Water, water everywhere

Posted on April 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Water, water everywhere

LakeTravis1.JPG

Anderson Mill Marina on Lake Travis is back to normal after all the recent rain. Until a few weeks ago, however, it looked like this, which is what it had looked like since last summer thanks to the drought which now seems to be pretty much over. Lakes and aquifers are up. Goodbye to dry. 

Comments Off on Water, water everywhere

Posted in Scribbles, Texana, Weather/Climate

Tagged , , ,

Adios drought

Posted on March 28, 2007 | Comments Off on Adios drought

With more rain moving in to the Austin area tomorrow through Saturday morning, some folks are saying the Central Texas drought which began in October, 2005, is almost over. And the LCRA’s Bob Rose says our outlook is for near-normal rain for spring and at or above normal for the summer. Meanwhile, we’re already 7 inches above average for 2007. Lake Travis, meanwhile, is still rising.

Comments Off on Adios drought

Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

Tagged , , ,

Rising lake

Posted on March 27, 2007 | Comments Off on Rising lake

Thanks to storm runoff and the Llano and Pedernales rivers:

 "With the recent rains, LCRA hydrologists are forecasting Lake Travis to rise to an elevation of about 662 to 664 feet above mean sea level (msl) by this weekend. That is about 8.5 to 10.5 feet above where the lake’s level was when rain began falling late Sunday. At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Lake Travis had already risen by more than 4 feet to an elevation of 657.82 feet msl, which is still more than 13 feet below its average elevation for March. The last time Lake Travis was this high was in June 2006."

Now we’re into the range where we need to be for LT’s recovery, except June 2006 was mighty low. Still need another 10 to 20 feet to get back to near-normal. 

Comments Off on Rising lake

Posted in Weather/Climate

Tagged , , ,

Wet spring?

Posted on March 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Wet spring?

Dry this weekend, but with the prospect of more heavy rain later this week into next weekend and perhaps the following week, as well, according to meteorologist Bob Rose of the Lower Colorado River Authority:

"In fac[t], I’m beginning to see many favorable parameters for severe thunderstorms during this period.  Rain amounts have the potential to be moderate to heavy since this system will be moving so slowly.  It’s too early to have a good handle on rain amounts, but somewhere around 2 to 4 inches doesn’t look out of the question."

Last weekend’s storms, concentrated in the watershed of the lakes, raised Lake Travis almost seven feet, to 652.79 above sea level by this morning. Another series of storms could do more, making this, as Bob says, a wetter spring than previously forecast. We need it.

Comments Off on Wet spring?

Posted in Weather/Climate

Tagged , ,

More vanishing lake

Posted on December 24, 2006 | Comments Off on More vanishing lake

Copy of LakeTravis.jpg

This gives a better idea of how low Lake Travis is these days. This ditch (about half a mile south of the previous photo) was a tributary off Cypress Arm before the drought and those sheltered swim platforms at the bottom used to float near the shore. The whole lake-reservoir, of course, used to look like this (albeit without any water) before Mansfield Dam was erected in the early 1940s stoppering the Colorado River–the Texas Colorado, not the more famous one–to create the lake. We have had a bit more than 1.5 inches of rain at the Rancho in the past 24 hours, the best rainfall in several months. But it will take a lot more in the lake’s watershed (principally the Llano and Pedernales rivers) to bring the lake back up to normal.

Comments Off on More vanishing lake

Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

Tagged , , ,