Tag Archives: Llano River

Oops

Posted on September 5, 2007 | Comments Off on Oops

All that Hill Country rain yesterday has the Llano and Pedernales rivers running almost 4,000 cubic feet per second. Since both feed into the Highland Lakes, it’s just a matter of time before Lake Travis starts climbing again. In fact, the LCRA is predicting a rise of about half a foot by this evening. Fortunately that would be only about 683 feet msl, and the rain is expected to be over by tonight.

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Posted in Sailing, Weather/Climate

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Floodin for real

Posted on June 27, 2007 | Comments Off on Floodin for real

I stare at the LCRA automated rain guages site entry for Marble Falls in disbelief. Seventeen point three nine inches of rain since midnight? The Llano River flowing at 52,871 cubic feet per second? The Pedernales River at 17,548? Lake Travis at 688.31, which means seven inches feet above full and the start of flooding out there on a grand scale. Two floodgates are open on Mansfield Dam with probably more to come, making shore life downstream on Lake Austin unpleasant as well. It’s hard even to get into the LCRA’s site, so many people must be trying. Indeed, there is widespread flooding in the Hill Country and especially along the Highland Lakes, according to the daily, with more rain to come. Austin spared, so far.

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Posted in Sailing, Weather/Climate

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Lakes filling

Posted on June 16, 2007 | Comments Off on Lakes filling

LCRA site shows Lake Travis has risen about 12 inches since last night’s rain, as flow rates rise in the Llano and Pedernales rivers. Indeed:

"Inflows from overnight rains are slowly filling the Highland Lakes. Flood operations are not anticipated at this time. However the chances of flood operations this weekend have become more likely as the lakes fill."

They’ll start later this afternoon with hydrogeneration at Mansfield Dam, and likely stick with that if the predicted more rain in the watershed doesn’t start driving the level up too fast. Opening flood gates always seems to be the last resort, given it’s a reservoir, and opening too many can flood people living along Lake Austin farther downstream. Those folks are sure to be watching LCRA’s balancing act.

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Posted in Sailing, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Lake on the rise

Posted on May 28, 2007 | 4 comments

The rancho and most of the area has been spared any severe flooding so far, but Lake Travis is rising like a rocket. According to the LCRA: the Llano River is running more than 12,000 cubic feet per second, when a few hundred is normal. The Llano flows into the upper lakes whose dams pass their excess downstream to Travis. Meanwhile the Pedernales, which flows directly into Travis, is running more than 6,000 cubic feet per second, when a few hundred is normal. Meanwhile, Lake Travis is at 681.22 feet above mean sea level, which is full–for the first time since April, 2005.

The parking lot at Anderson Mill marina was mostly underwater Sunday morning. The lake was more than 12 inches lower at that point. The extra foot could have drowned the rest of the lot. The river authority is keenly aware of all this and may have to open another gate or two on the dam to slow the rise. They don’t like to squander the water, and so have been releasing only enough to generate electricity. But opening more may be necessary to prevent flooding on the lake. Which, in turn, might mean dock and other shoreline damage to folks who live downstream on Lake Austin. A complicated juggling act.

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Nice rains

Posted on January 4, 2007 | Comments Off on Nice rains

Only about an inch in the Austin area in the past 24 hours, but the watershed of the lakes is doing much better with one and a half and a little more around the Pedernales River and almost two inches around the Llano River–with more yet to come tonight and tomorrow, although a lot of it has moved off east of Interstate 35 by now.

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Rain starting slow

Posted on December 29, 2006 | Comments Off on Rain starting slow

Looking at the hydrologic data of the Lower Colorado River Authority’s river operations center at this time of the morning, you can see that Central Texas has had precious little so far of the rain we were promised through tonight–only about a quarter of an inch at one gauge on the Llano River, the same on the San Saba, with almost a third of an inch on the Cherokee but not even a tenth of an inch so far on the Pedernales River. These are readings from automated gauges northwest of Austin in the Colorado River watershed, one of the best ways of gathering intelligence about how a rain event is shaping up. You have to choose a display at the link and "rainfall–since midnight" is the best in this situation. National Weather Service says severe storms possible as the day wears on, so may have shut down the ‘puter at the Rancho off and on. But when you’re in the midst of a bad drought, that’s not much of an annoyance.

UPDATE  At 1 p.m., meteorologist Troy Kimmel says we’re under a tornado watch until 8 p.m. Then it was extended until 2 a.m. But, by midnight, 2 inches seemed to be the highest total rain for the Austin area. Not much, really, but we’ll take it.

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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.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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