Rains welcome, but do little for lakes
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Thousands of Central Texans were jarred awake by stormy weather early Wednesday, but despite the noise and bluster, the rain was welcome.
Radar showed the heaviest rains to the south and to the east of Austin. Estimates of greater than three inches came in a strip from near Luling north between San Marcos and Lockhart to southern Travis County. Even hours after the rain ended, the area continued to surge.
For farmers and ranchers, the timing is excellent.
"We do have some people that grow winter crops, so it's great for them, but then also it recharges the soil. We got some really good soaking rain and they also we got some runoff to recharge the rivers," Daphne Richards, Texas AgriLife Extension agent, said.
But what about the quickly-drying Highland Lakes? The Lake Travis watershed saw little of the rain and stream gauges show very little is moving downstream into the lake.
The story is the same at Lake LBJ and Lake Buchanan. All received some beneficial rainfall, but not enough to be significant.
Water levels at Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan are expected to rise about 0.4 feet and 0.1 feet respectively, but with Texas still in a very serious drought, all rain is good rain.
“It's getting on the time when our grasses will start to come back up, the seedling grasses, the native grasses, so it's really a good time for us to get some rain," Richards said.
Water flow at Barton Springs nearly doubled in the hours after the storm. Officials with the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District say this shows that the aquifer is recharging.