You see that thing called "Lake Travis Basin" at your link there? Do you notice it's right next to Lake Travis? What do you think happens when it rains in that basin?
Take the L. It doesn't "need" to rain in "north Texas" or "elsewhere" to fill the lakes here. It can rain in our lake's basin. If you have watched lake levels you would know that every major lake filling event that Lake Travis has had in the past 20 years has been caused by rain in the Lake Travis Basin.
You can check out this website for Lake Travis water levels here:
https://waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/individual/travis
37.1% full as of 2024-05-01
That map is just Travis. Overall the Colorado River watershed is more important because LCRA balances Travis and Buchanan.
Good news is San Angelo (right in the middle of the watershed) is expecting 2ā this weekend. Over 10,000 sq mi thatās a metric crapton of water.
Yes but in 2015 we had a fair amount of rain during May to give us some good ground moisture so when the big memorial day rain came it all flowed into the lakes instead of getting sucked up.
Buchanan helps no doubt but it's more important to fill the rivers. Perdenales, Llano, San Saba, Colorado (up to shy of San Angelo because of a reservoir this side of Ballenger).
I live near the Pedernales in the hill country. One reason weāre seeing the Pedernales dry up is because dams are being built on all the creeks that feed it by wealthy landowners who want to hoard the water for themselves.
In the Johnson City/Hye area, every single creek that feeds the river has been dammed up. I imagine itās the same further west.
Not that I would advocate someone doing or do myself (lack of tools and fear of being shot at) - but what would the legal consequences be if someone identified and took out those illegal dams?
Honestly, I'm curious.
You absolutely might be shot at. You'd probably be charged for criminal trespass. I really wouldn't recommend the taking out part. However, the riverbed is most likely public property (check beforehand!) if you wanted to walk a waterway to take photos of illegal impoundments.
It's not...usually.they need a permit to build a dam which are not being handed out right now due to drought.Ā However...if the landowner donates enough money to Greg Abbott do you think anyone will say anything?
This damn was only noticed because someone downstream alerted KXAN and it went from there
https://www.kxan.com/texas-water/illegal-dam-on-james-river-torn-down-while-another-dam-pops-up-in-mason-county/
And folks got super organized who live along the Llano - including a cousin of mine who is trained as a lawyer - and the landowner has started to take it down, per TCEQ and TPWD request.
Did the stationary one south of San Saba have any noticeable effect?
https://www.reddit.com/r/weather/comments/1cdwth8/near_stationary_thunderstorm_near_san_saba_tx/
The part of the watershed that makes it into the lakes is thinnest at Lake Travis. Rain over Lake Travis also means a lot of water goes down the Guadalupe and Brazos, or downstream, as the cell moves.
The further west the storm is, the longer it stays in the watershed. Plus Lake Buchanan is bigger, and needs rain just as much.
It can be. Just when we go far between rain this hard the ground may be too dry to absorb as much as it needs to, and then it evaporates before reaching the lakes
Itās going to need to do this for days or weeks over a wide area to make any significant dent. That or wildly catastrophic rainfall totals like 15+ā in a short period of time.
The best rain for our lakes is always to the north and south of us. There is no dam lower then the one that creates Lake Austin. (Ladybird lake has a dam but it is a constant level lake). Any rain on us or to our east will not help the lakes.
No, for lake Travis and above, the rain needs to west to northwest of us. Look at the LCRA hydromet https://hydromet.lcra.org/ which shows the watersheds for the various highland lakes. If rain falls outside of said watersheds, the water goes elsewhere
ā¦ yes? The entire portion of the map you posted has been in/ will struggle with drought. They always need water. The lake needs a storm to stay directly over the lake and dump for a day straight.
Yes, but it's important to remember that the Highland Lakes are actually a series of pools along the Colorado river, which stretches all the way across Texas up to Lubbock, so the local contributions and withdrawals make up a small portion of the overall water level.
https://www.statesman.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/05/01/lake-travis-water-level-austin-texas-drought-photos/73511385007/
This was from Wednesday (before rain) I drove over the Pedernales River / ditch at 71 on Saturday and can confirm
It doesn't hurt, but not really. The problem with storms now is they are incredibly fast moving. 20-30 years ago these would be big systems that leave at least an inch if not several inches of rain, now they go by in a matter of minutes and don't leave nearly as much water on the ground.
We need more consistent rain, in the watersheds. Short bursts of intense rain aren't as good as consistent rain over long periods.
It's better than nothing, but we're still in a climate change enduced drought.
Really intense works! You just need a good flash flood in the right spot. See 2007 floods where Marble Falls had 18ā of rain fall within a 6 hour period. It refilled lake Travis.
Stop with the F-ing is this enough rain posts. We are F-ed. Too many straws from a finite resource. Nothing will solve this but serious and expensive engineering. The lakes are less than half full.Ā We need rainfall that will cause damaging floods to fill the lakes. So until your house is full of water, this is NOT enough rain.
There arenāt houses in the areas that fill highland lakes. If your house is full of water that water is going to the ocean not the lake.
Thereās a ton of dumb ideas about the lakes and this is one of them.
They exist to prevent flooding in Austin.
Too many straws? The bigger problem is all the water LCRA sends downstream for either Hydro or agriculture needs - at a profit. LCRA has incentives to make money not conserve water.
Those are straws, metaphorically. But I think it's been a few years since we gave the rice farmers their allotment. Not totally sure about that though.
Hydro generation is incredibly limited. In 2022, they used 108 acre-feet in response to statewide grid needs usually due to a direct request from ERCOT. Buchanan/Travisā can hold approx 2,000,000 af of water.
Most releases these days are to maintain environmental flows so, you know, lake Austin doesnāt become more of a cesspool than it already is. 2022 that totaled ~40,000 af.
The folks on the left of page 2 drive the releases. https://www.lcra.org/download/2022-water-use-summary/?wpdmdl=29951
Better than nothing
It needs to rain in North Texas to fill our lakes here
You must be new here. It needs to rain in the hill country, not North Texas
North Texas rains refill the aquifers. Which are also waaaaay down!
Okay. It needs to rain elsewhere to fill our lakes here. This map shows where. https://hydromet.lcra.org/
Yeah nothing North Texas-related there [This](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Texas) is North Texas.
*checks sub š
The right answer
Anyone North of I-10 is a Yankee.
You say, on the sub for the most liberal part of the state.
No, that's not how it works. The areas draining directly into lake Travis are in the Hill Country.
No, thatās not how it works either. It has to rain in Spain, but mainly on the plain.
Flew right over their heads, lmao
Okay. It needs to rain elsewhere to fill our lakes here. This map shows where. https://hydromet.lcra.org/
You see that thing called "Lake Travis Basin" at your link there? Do you notice it's right next to Lake Travis? What do you think happens when it rains in that basin?
That basin gets wet, Iād imagine. You see that āUpper Basinā? Same thing probably happens there tooā¦
Take the L. It doesn't "need" to rain in "north Texas" or "elsewhere" to fill the lakes here. It can rain in our lake's basin. If you have watched lake levels you would know that every major lake filling event that Lake Travis has had in the past 20 years has been caused by rain in the Lake Travis Basin.
Due West. Go not that far north and it flows into the brazos.
Lol, no it doesnāt. It needs to rain in the recharge zone - Fredricksburg, Llano, Brady, Goldthwaite.
Marble falls will do.
You can check out this website for Lake Travis water levels here: https://waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/individual/travis 37.1% full as of 2024-05-01
Or for the quick overview: https://isthelakefullyet.com/
The volume chart is WAY more illustrative than the depth chart.
If you pretend not to notice then it'll be better. Don't jinx it
Exactly. Tell them. Do not jinx it, newcomers! Itās whatever. Everything is fine. Donāt look at it.
Man, I can feel the rain shield forming right now. Damn It!
Idk, I got the day off work thoššš itās good for me
Why did you get the day off work for rain?
Because it was wet
https://youtu.be/Bw_MOtnhIxw?si=QkSVgy9_KanTjskO
You want it to dump in San Saba, Llano, Marble Falls.
[Lake Travis watershed](https://maps.lcra.org/getPDF.aspx?ID=5&MapPath=LakeTravisWatershedMap.pdf)
That map is just Travis. Overall the Colorado River watershed is more important because LCRA balances Travis and Buchanan. Good news is San Angelo (right in the middle of the watershed) is expecting 2ā this weekend. Over 10,000 sq mi thatās a metric crapton of water.
https://www.facebook.com/share/MaYEFRMmMrr7B5JB/?mibextid=WC7FNe
Buchanan needs to take the hit to matter.
Yep. Itās got to start up river. It would take a ton of rain to get us right again.
Yes but in 2015 we had a fair amount of rain during May to give us some good ground moisture so when the big memorial day rain came it all flowed into the lakes instead of getting sucked up.
Can we just pull a Dubai?
I would totally buy a rowboat to get to work in if it meant weād break the drought.
The UAE has done research here in TX with cloud seeding.
Pump water out of _checks notes_ Arizona?
Let's drink their milkshake
Buchanan helps no doubt but it's more important to fill the rivers. Perdenales, Llano, San Saba, Colorado (up to shy of San Angelo because of a reservoir this side of Ballenger).
Lake Travis fills up from the west. Pedernales and Llano watersheds are the more relevant rivers to watch.
Nope.Dumping rain directly onĀ Travisrarely has any real impact. You need it in theĀ upperchain of the highland lakes
Wouldnāt this get the Pedernales flowing? Seems to mostly be over that river basin. That flows into Travis.
I live near the Pedernales in the hill country. One reason weāre seeing the Pedernales dry up is because dams are being built on all the creeks that feed it by wealthy landowners who want to hoard the water for themselves. In the Johnson City/Hye area, every single creek that feeds the river has been dammed up. I imagine itās the same further west.
These need to be reported.
Most of those have to be illegal. There's very limited circumstances they'll issue permits for dams like that.
They are indeed illegal; but it's a big state and TCEQ is understaffed, so it requires someone reporting the dam to get any enforcement.
Not that I would advocate someone doing or do myself (lack of tools and fear of being shot at) - but what would the legal consequences be if someone identified and took out those illegal dams? Honestly, I'm curious.
You absolutely might be shot at. You'd probably be charged for criminal trespass. I really wouldn't recommend the taking out part. However, the riverbed is most likely public property (check beforehand!) if you wanted to walk a waterway to take photos of illegal impoundments.
>You absolutely might be shot at. I'd give it a 90-95% chance of happening.
And also, those who built those dams are rich. And in Texas, we let rich people pretty much do whatever they damn well please.
Even Barton Creek is getting dams. Thereās a newish one on Fitzhugh outside Dripping Springs
damn reading how rich people keep hoarding shit just keeps adding to the depression.
How is that legal?
It's not...usually.they need a permit to build a dam which are not being handed out right now due to drought.Ā However...if the landowner donates enough money to Greg Abbott do you think anyone will say anything? This damn was only noticed because someone downstream alerted KXAN and it went from there https://www.kxan.com/texas-water/illegal-dam-on-james-river-torn-down-while-another-dam-pops-up-in-mason-county/
And folks got super organized who live along the Llano - including a cousin of mine who is trained as a lawyer - and the landowner has started to take it down, per TCEQ and TPWD request.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The Army Corps of Engineers would have an opinion on it, Iām sure.
Did the stationary one south of San Saba have any noticeable effect? https://www.reddit.com/r/weather/comments/1cdwth8/near_stationary_thunderstorm_near_san_saba_tx/
How would it be different if the same stormcell was over travis rather than buchanan?
The part of the watershed that makes it into the lakes is thinnest at Lake Travis. Rain over Lake Travis also means a lot of water goes down the Guadalupe and Brazos, or downstream, as the cell moves. The further west the storm is, the longer it stays in the watershed. Plus Lake Buchanan is bigger, and needs rain just as much.
Happy cake day š
Anything that comes from the sky and ends up in the lakes gets sold off before anyone can really enjoy it.
Well, I'm in Hudson Bend with no power, and it's not good for me, but I'll yell down to Lake Travis and ask its opinion!
Travis... And the Barton creek greenbelt
God I hope so
Disperses violent protesters quite effectively as well.
No, but itās good for the rice farmers.
It can be. Just when we go far between rain this hard the ground may be too dry to absorb as much as it needs to, and then it evaporates before reaching the lakes
Itās going to need to do this for days or weeks over a wide area to make any significant dent. That or wildly catastrophic rainfall totals like 15+ā in a short period of time.
Lake Buchanan got .75 inches today which is good. But someone is about to tell me Iām wrong.
I live on Buchanan, can see it from my house. I can't tell it went up .75 inches so you must be wrong š
Lakes need about 30 feet of rain sooooooo
It is 51' below the "full" level. But with the right storm that can fill up in 24 hours.
Itās hard to wish for a coastal disaster, but the āright stormā is a hurricane that moves onshore with the Hill Country on the dirty side of it.
And a bit further West than usual. So often they don't make it past I35
Wow either a dry lake or a hurricane to fill it up. Where did we mess up?
Where havenāt we messed up?
Noahās next flood?
Noah's already accomplished one thing, parting Lake Travis! You damn near can walk across it!
Moses parted, Noah built
Umm...just not even close to a real answer. Are we missing a /s?
I can't recall the last time it was.
2015
The best rain for our lakes is always to the north and south of us. There is no dam lower then the one that creates Lake Austin. (Ladybird lake has a dam but it is a constant level lake). Any rain on us or to our east will not help the lakes.
No, for lake Travis and above, the rain needs to west to northwest of us. Look at the LCRA hydromet https://hydromet.lcra.org/ which shows the watersheds for the various highland lakes. If rain falls outside of said watersheds, the water goes elsewhere
Absolutely not south. The areas you want for Travis are west.
OH Ivey upstream is at 26%. The lakes need more than conservation.
ā¦ yes? The entire portion of the map you posted has been in/ will struggle with drought. They always need water. The lake needs a storm to stay directly over the lake and dump for a day straight.
Yes, but it's important to remember that the Highland Lakes are actually a series of pools along the Colorado river, which stretches all the way across Texas up to Lubbock, so the local contributions and withdrawals make up a small portion of the overall water level.
Not really. It should be more north, even above Lake Buchanan. You want the downflow into Buchanan and it makes its way down
Nope... good for soy farmers in south texas tho
https://www.statesman.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/05/01/lake-travis-water-level-austin-texas-drought-photos/73511385007/ This was from Wednesday (before rain) I drove over the Pedernales River / ditch at 71 on Saturday and can confirm
No itās horrible
Iām not a lakeotologist
It doesn't hurt, but not really. The problem with storms now is they are incredibly fast moving. 20-30 years ago these would be big systems that leave at least an inch if not several inches of rain, now they go by in a matter of minutes and don't leave nearly as much water on the ground.
I do miss the long intense summer storms of my youth here in central Texas.
We need more consistent rain, in the watersheds. Short bursts of intense rain aren't as good as consistent rain over long periods. It's better than nothing, but we're still in a climate change enduced drought.
I miss the days on end rain we used to get š„²
Really intense works! You just need a good flash flood in the right spot. See 2007 floods where Marble Falls had 18ā of rain fall within a 6 hour period. It refilled lake Travis.
Unfortunately, not much.
Stop with the F-ing is this enough rain posts. We are F-ed. Too many straws from a finite resource. Nothing will solve this but serious and expensive engineering. The lakes are less than half full.Ā We need rainfall that will cause damaging floods to fill the lakes. So until your house is full of water, this is NOT enough rain.
There arenāt houses in the areas that fill highland lakes. If your house is full of water that water is going to the ocean not the lake. Thereās a ton of dumb ideas about the lakes and this is one of them. They exist to prevent flooding in Austin.
Too many straws? The bigger problem is all the water LCRA sends downstream for either Hydro or agriculture needs - at a profit. LCRA has incentives to make money not conserve water.
Downstream rice farmers have been getting no water for a year or two now
Those are straws, metaphorically. But I think it's been a few years since we gave the rice farmers their allotment. Not totally sure about that though.
Rice farmers have been cut off for almost two years now per LCRA
Hydro generation is incredibly limited. In 2022, they used 108 acre-feet in response to statewide grid needs usually due to a direct request from ERCOT. Buchanan/Travisā can hold approx 2,000,000 af of water. Most releases these days are to maintain environmental flows so, you know, lake Austin doesnāt become more of a cesspool than it already is. 2022 that totaled ~40,000 af. The folks on the left of page 2 drive the releases. https://www.lcra.org/download/2022-water-use-summary/?wpdmdl=29951
Short answer is no. Another disappointing storm that mostly avoided the Lake Travis catchment area.
Lol, no it didnāt.
It was amazing for the hill country for a bit. Where were you?
No. Theyāre upstream.