Tagged: Highland Lakes

Two days of storms that delivered about 3 inches of rain to Austin did little for the levels of the lakes that serve as Austin’s water supply. Lake Travis rose by less than a foot; Lake Buchanan was up slightly more than 2 inches.

Dan Yates with the Lower Colorado River Authority says it provided a very small bump. 

“We need a good season of rainstorms like this that we saw yesterday and the day before... that would get us out of the trouble,” Yates said.

Recent rainfall is helping to fill the Highland Lakes—at least a little bit.

Parts of Central Texas received more than two inches of rain on Sunday. Combined with rainfall from earlier last week, rainfall totals for some areas topped nine inches.

The Lower Colorado River Authority says the water level of Lake Travis is up a little over a foot. Lake Buchanan only saw a gain of a few hundredths of an inch.

"The location of the rain makes all the difference and, in this case, the vast majority of the rain fell over the Highland Lakes basin," LCRA river operations center supervisor Dan Yates says.

Central Texans are all wrapped up for this cold and breezy day. We got some much-needed rain over the weekend and through early Monday morning. Most areas got between one and two inches - some places as many as three.

“This rain did percolate into the topsoil which prior to this event had very, very little moisture in it," Bob Rose, Meteorologist for the Lower Colorado River Authority, said. "This is good for our landscape, our trees, wildflowers next Spring. It did put some water into area ranchers’ stock ponds and things like that.” 

But a good drenching does not “an end to a drought make.” Rose says the rain didn’t do much to fill area aquifers or the Highland Lakes.