It's at 43% capacity and it looks like a Texas version of Lake Mead. Any hope of it filling back up? Are the lakes upstream still pretty full? I only ask because that's how it used to be - Buchanan and LBJ were fine, but Travis was low.

I used to live in Steiner Ranch back in 2004 to 2006. Now my son and daughter in law live there. We used to love renting boats on Lake Travis in the summer.

Red Pear Felipe said:

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We've been in a La Niña for the last three years. We are finally back in El Niño. I remember Lake Travis being low back in 2015 before we got hit with the Memorial Day floods. I think that filled up the lake in a matter of two weeks.

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We're in an El Niño now, the question is how long will it last? The new ENSO forecast comes out tomorrow, so that should give us a better idea.

I rely on Water Data for Texas, you can see historical Lake Travis levels there (screenshot below). It's down around levels only seen 4 or 5 times since the dam was built, so it's very low. Lake Buchanan holds water upstream, currently 60% of max capacity. The last 15 years have been concerning for Lake Travis levels, there were some very strong La Nina cycles during that time - is that the new norm, or an oddity and we will return to the cycles common from 1966 to 2006? The number of consumers of Lake travis water has obviously exploded, but the amount of water lost to evaporation equals or exceeds the amount of water used by utility consumers.

We will see how this El Nino event takes shape, but the Lake can fill in a week or even days, We rely on those flood events to capture water.

one of the wettest we've seen, in terms of water

A week is seven days, what are you a complete idiot!?!?

It's done this before… filled up in like 3 days. Like others have said… entering El Niño will help a ton.

Apache said:

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A week is seven days, what are you a complete idiot!?!?

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We picked the wrong time to buy a boat last year. Almost all our ramps are closed on the north side of the lake.

Marble Falls has a free public ramp right downtown. Just get their early in the morning on a weekend.

I don't understand why people pay big money to live on Lake Travis when it's low so much of the time. You'd constantly be messing around with moving the anchors for your floating dock if you were even luckily enough to live on a part of the lake where your dock could still float.

You would never see a major reservoir get this low in Bastrop, Paige, or Kyle.

Lake Travis usually has a pretty good high school football team, so they got that going for them.

Potcake said:

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You would never see a major reservoir get this low in Bastrop, Paige, or Kyle.

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We get ours from Canyon Lake. We are good. Plus not infested yet with Zebra Mussels

It will be fine...soon creek front will be lake front property.

Yeah, we've had plenty of rain out east of the city this year. Figured it was falling west of town too but so guess not. Beats a couple years ago when our area south of Paige had almost No measurable rain for about 5 months.

I'm on the lake about 30 days a year fishing and boating and it's unusually low but it can go up several feet from one rain event. It's doing what it was designed for. The lower lake is fine for recreation but only a couple of ramps are open with it this low.

Supposed to get a nice rain for the area this weekend. It will be interesting to see how much it rises.

KT 90 said:

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They are predicting a lot of rain Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday this coming weekend. Around 5 to 7 inches, or more. This time it should be impacting the hill country area west of Austin, where it is badly needed. If they can get significant rains this weekend, following the recent rains, Lake Travis and the Highland Lakes should get a decent bump.

I know... believe it when you see it. The hill country always seems to miss out on the rain lately, while the area to the east of Austin gets rain with every system that comes through (seemingly).

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They thought it might be 5" of rain or more, but it seems the basin got around 1-2" instead. Good, soaking basin wide rain but only led to a half foot rise on Lake Travis so far.

Yea. Damn storm shifted south and west from original target. this weeks forecast has cleared up considerably as well.

Just picked up a hard and fast 2" in lago

The lakes fill from rain far to the west and northwest. When you get an inch around Austin the lakes go up an inch.

Travis fills mostly from the Pedernales and the Llano. So the rain needs to fall between Fredericksburg out to Junction. Buchanan begins to fill steady once Brownwood is full.

Everywhere the rain needs to fall got at least a couple of inches, but the rivers didn't rise very much so that is filling tanks and ponds and holes along the river. The next good rain should begin to wash out the creeks and rivers so the water can move. Then we're set up for a flood.

Memorial Day is always a good bet for a flood and things can probably stay primed for a flood until the 4th of July. After that you usually have to wait until the fall to get the system ready again.

I'm betting a nice rise by the 4th of July and full lakes by they end of the year.

I feel like Memorial Day is always a gullywasher

After the rains Monday and Tuesday I'm liking the Guadalupe's chance for a Memorial Day flood more that the Colorado. The Colorado and all have risen a little quicker each time it's rained over an inch, but nothing big enough to say everything is full and we just need one more storm to set it off.

Lake Travis went up less than a quarter of an inch over past two weeks despite all the rain. I suspect the LCRA is releasing a ton of water to meet contracts further down the river.

WestAustinAg said:

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Lake Travis went up less than a quarter of an inch over past two weeks despite all the rain. I suspect the LCRA is releasing a ton of water to meet contracts further down the river.

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It's gone up one foot over past 14 days, 48 times more than you claim, but yes - not much. We got 1-2 inches a week ago, not the 4-7 they predicted. But it's a start. As mentioned by others above, the initial rains soak soil and fill dead spots on rivers - need more rounds of rains to hit lakes.

The Llano and Sandy Creek have both risen to bank full briefly over the weekend. They're ready to go. The Perd had a small rise that didn't make it down so it's not quite ready. Any rain over an inch between Marble Falls, Llano and Mason should bring Lake Travis up in the next week and maybe some of it will wash out the Perd.

Travis is in a pretty steep canyon so it rises quickly compared to Buchanan where it spreads out and the next foot of rise may need twice the water as the last one.

If it rains enough in the area, there are also springs that help fill the lake, but they're a trickle relative to the rivers and creeks. You can see the springs in the cliff shorelines in places.