LCRA predicts showers, reports lake inflow

Rain showers have moved through Burnet County, pouring welcome relief on the parched Highland Lakes area and a chance exists for continued small respites.
The small break in dry heat was forecast by Bob Rose, chief meteorologist for the Lower Colorado River Authority, “as the stubborn ridge of high pressure that has been across Texas since the middle of June finally shifts west, allowing clouds and moisture to spread into Texas.”
“With the ridge weakening across Texas, the atmosphere should become more unstable over the next few days,” Rose predicted Monday. “Meanwhile, a small area of low pressure in the upper atmosphere is currently situated over Louisiana with a second area of low pressure noted over the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Both of these lows are forecast to push tropical moisture into Texas over the next few days, leading to the development of scattered rain showers, thunderstorms and lower temperatures.
More rain showers and thunderstorms were forecast Wednesday morning into Wednesday evening, July 27, but locally Rose expected totals not to exceed 1.5 inches.”
“Forecast solutions indicate the tropical moisture will decrease Thursday into Friday, but a small amount will still linger across our region into the upcoming weekend,” Rose said. “The sky will return to being mostly sunny as much of the tropical moisture shifts west of our region.”
Rose did say parts of the area could see some significant totals of rain. The National Weather Service's rainfall forecast last week through Monday morning, Aug. 1, called for less than an inch of rain west of I35, although isolated totals near three inches were considered possible.
“Long-range forecasts call for a return to sunny, hot and dry weather across our region as the high pressure ridge over the western U.S. slowly spreads back towards Texas,” Rose said. “Daily high temperatures are forecast to be near 98-100 degrees.  As of now, no rain is expected.”
The LCRA issued a lakes report this week on the effects of the flooding rains that began in late May over much of the lower Colorado River basin and continued through the first half of June. Inflows to the Highland Lakes were more than three times higher than the monthly average.
Inflows into the Highland Lakes in June totaled 563,696 acre-feet, more than the Highland Lakes received in the entire years of 2011, 2012, 2013 or 2014, according to the report. The June inflows were about 75 percent of the amount of inflows the lakes received in 2015. (An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons.)
Inflows are the amount of water flowing into the lakes estimated from measurements at four gauges upstream.
Through June, inflows into the Highland Lakes this year total 1.27 million acre-feet, more than the yearly average of 1.21 million acre-feet.
The June inflows follow a wet spring that also brought above-average inflows to the Highland Lakes in March, April and May.
During the May-June flooding, LCRA operated the Highland Lakes and dams together as a system to manage the floodwaters. LCRA temporarily held floodwaters in Lake Travis, the only Highland Lake with a designated flood pool – until the water could be moved downstream safely without causing additional flooding downstream.