Lake Travis update

hornian

hornian

1,000+ Posts
Holy hell, it caught a lot of water the past two weeks. It's not anywhere near full, but almost all of the "Sometimes Islands" near the dam are now submerged again, and it is up probably 5-10 feet more than it was at this time last year. A few more big storms like we had recently, and the lake just may get full. That would be amazing.

Oh, but watch out for all the debris in the lake, I was dodging driftwood left and right.
 
From March 11 to today, according to my estimates, Lake Travis increased about 250,000 acre/feet. At 326,000 gallons per acre/foot, that would be 81.5 BILLION gallons of water in 23 days.
 
MrWizard.jpg
 
I was watching the SA news (despite living in Austin, long story) and saw that March 2007 was the wettest month in SA since they started recording such things.

How was Austin? I mean, I know it rained a shitload, but did we break the record like SA?
 
I drive by Cypress Creek boat ramp every morning.

It's still too low for a boat to launch, but it is definitely coming up. Hopefully this weekend will fill it even more!
 
Travis County really should have extended that ramp at some point during the last 15 months while they had the opportunity.
 
No kidding, talk about a lack of foresight.

Luckily the private park for the subdivision that my family's lake house is in has taken advantage of lean years in the past to extend the boat ramp when need be. It was a little hairy last year because it was so long and steep, but we were still able to launch our boats and jetskis all year long.
 
I don't know anything about the number of public boat ramps on the lake, but one thing to consider is that having ramps that are unusable during low water times does have the effect of less traffic in the water when the lake is less safe, which could be a consideration.
 
Seems like they'd have to do a lot of dredging to extend the Cypress Creek ramp very far. Besides, when the lake is down as much as it has been, the water is a long, long way from the ramp.
 
No ****, I have been saying this for months. How hard is it to plan to lay a little concrete, when the lake is a bazillion feet low?

Half wit county.
 
Up to 669 now, only 2 feet below April Average! "Full" is 681, and at the rate the lake has caught water in the last 6 weeks, its not completely out of the question that we could see a full lake by the summer if the rain keeps up over the rest of April. I'm not counting on it, but I've seen too many big rain events in my limited time in Austin (6+ years) to count it out.

Here's a really good link for checking out level changes, water temperature, precipitation, etc. (and it's run by UT): http://wwwext.arlut.utexas.edu/omg/weather.html
 
Right now it's at 669.17. That is still about 2 feet short of the historic April average and 12 feet short of "full".

I think they ran a little bit of water out the other day for some hydroelectric production.

The good news is that the whole basin area that will go to Travis is getting some decent rainfall right now. That includes the Llano and Pedernales Rivers, from about Junction to the West, a little bit north of Llano to the north, just east of Lake Travis to the east, and Blanco/Fredricksburg to the south. It looks like the gauges are getting between .25 and 1.25 inch. The grounds are getting pretty dired up again since the last rains, so a bunch will just soak in. But, that should translate to about 6 inches to a foot increase in Lake Travis if they don't use it for hydroelectric.

FWIW, the current Austin forecast also calls for rain from Sunday to Wed.

I never would have believed it 6 weeks ago, but I am starting to get the feeling that we are due for another good downpour that could get the Lake to about 675 feet. Which would be both amazing and awesome. Only a few weeks to go until Memorial Day.
 
Decided to come study out at the lake today. It's one thing to see the levels on the website, its quite another to see it in person.

Only the largest "sometimes island" is still there. There were literally dozens just 3 months ago.

For the past 18+ months there has been a pennisula that extended from the private park that I go to, it is finally underwater (only about 3 feet in most places, but it's completely submerged).

The boat ramp I use is literally 1/3 the length that it was in February.

The changes are drastic, and I just hope the lake keeps rising.

Oh, and the water temp is right around 66-68 degrees, a little chilly but you get used to it fast. It was a great place to study and take some study breaks.
 
My dog appreciates the report and wants to know when she can go out there and swim.
 
I finally got to see the lake up close yesterday after the rains. It looks AWESOME. That is as high as its been in 3 summers. Devils Cove was pretty crowded considering Memorial Day is a month away. All of the courtesy docks at Carlos and Charlie's are operational again. It was a damn nice sight to drop in at Mansfield and fly out into the basin and see nothing but the tips of sometimes island.
 
LCRA is still using most of what falls for hydroelectric production. The level has remained right around 669.5 through 2-3 rainfalls.

The really good news is that the Buchanan basin got a bunch of much needed water yesterday and today. It is now at 1004.4 and expected to go over 1005 this week. They still need a bunch more water. That lake is "full" at 1018, but because it is much larger, (surface-wise) it takes a lot more water to make it rise than Lake Travis requires.
 
per today's AA-S, Travis is at 670 (as of 5pm Wed....more rain last night)......full at 681; Buchanan is at 1003, full at 1020

Austin, Marble Falls, LBJ, and Inks all constant level lakes & full

shud be a good summer on them
 
I don't care about O&W's rationalizing, as of May 4th, 2007 we are above 671, and less than 6 inches below the historic May average. This is HUGE!!!

I am going to love this summer.

Oh, and the even better news is that the water temps have been holding steady north of 70 degrees. Peeeerfect water temps. I can't wait for next weekend when I go out to celebrate being done with my first year of law school
 
You were saying that even though it was above 670 they were probably going to bring it down to 669.5, unless I misread. I don't really have a problem, I was just exuberant to see the lake level rise again.
 
Don't get me wrong, I am really excited about the rise as well.

My point about the 669.5 was that there were several rainfalls that came through when the lake did not rise at all. That was due to LCRA releasing it through electric production. I definitely did not mean that they would keep doing that, just that it looked like they had been doing it for a a few weeks, when rains came, the lake did not rise.

The rain that came earlier this week actually accumulated some depth in the lake.
 
672.05 tonight, officially above the historical May average. Wow. And more rain forecast all week.

Edit - I was just looking at the historical levels of the lake, and the December 2006 average was 643 feet, the lake has come up almost 30 feet in a little of 4 months. Allsome.
 
Gone out twice in the past 5 days. The water is so clear and warm. And the lake is still rising. It's great.
 
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