Highland Lakes still gripped by drought

For the greater-Austin area, this is the third driest year on record, state experts said, and it’s been the driest year since 1963. Conditions aren’t expected to change until mid-winter.

“The good news is because of the rains during the summer of 2007, the lakes started this year in pretty good condition,” said Mark Jordan, Lower Colorado River Authority river management manager. “But after the rain that summer, the precipitation pretty much shut off in September (2007).”

In June 2007, a catastrophic storm some meteorologists dubbed a “rain bomb” dumped up to 19 inches of water on the Highland Lakes in just a few hours, flooding roads and stranding residents. 

Eventually, though, the drought returned and gripped the region. And while droughts are a way of life in the Highland Lakes, there are three factors aggravating this latest dry spell, Jordan said.

“This past summer we had a period of at least 20 consecutive days of 100 degrees or higher,” Jordan said. “All totaled, we probably had more than 50 days of 100-degree temperatures this summer. In June, which is typically one of our wettest months, we had several days in a row of 100 degrees or more.”

The rising mercury led to a high evaporation rate, which sucked surface water from lakes and land, he said. 

“Then it was a low-rainfall summer,” Jordan said. “Those three things combined put us in a pretty good drought.”

The good news is the two main storage lakes — Buchanan and Travis — entered the drought with a high volume of water. Those levels have dropped since September 2007, but Jordan said right now the water supply is still in good shape.

“We’re about two-thirds full in the combined water storage of Travis and Buchanan,” he said. 

The other problem the lakes face is the lack of inflows. The Highland Lakes depend on water from the Colorado River, Llano River and Pedernales River watersheds, in addition to numerous smaller tributaries, Jordan said.

“Our tributary inflows are actually lower this year than they were before 2007 when the lakes really dropped,” he said. Those inflows were the lowest since 1942.

Weather patterns don’t seem set up to break the current drought. Jordan said the tropical systems that typically bring large swaths of moist air up from the Gulf of Mexico have dissipated for the year. And the weather pattern over the Pacific Ocean that brings winter rains has dried up as well.

“We expect dry conditions at least through February,” Jordan said.

While the lake levels are still good right now, LCRA and other officials are encouraging people to conserve water. 

Jordan said the LCRA will continue to monitor inflows and lake levels.

Though the Highland Lakes has experienced some rainfall recently, Jordan said it’s not really enough to pump much-needed water into the rivers, streams and lakes.

“These little rains really aren’t doing much for the lakes,” he said. “They get sucked up by the ground pretty fast. You need a good soaking rain of four to five inches to get runoff, otherwise it just goes into the ground.”

To bring the lakes back up to full levels, Jordan said it would take 12-13 inches of rain spread over several days — not the deluge the area suffered June 2007.

Despite the 14-month-old drought, Jordan remains optimistic that conditions will improve.

“The last time the lakes were this low was spring of 2007, before the skies opened up,” he said. “It will rain again. I just don’t know when.”

Burnet and Llano counties are maintaining burn bans that have been in place for months, a sure sign the lack of rainfall remains a troubling issue.

daniel@thepicayune.com