Weather Update

The rain has slowed some. It is early Saturday as I write this, and we've only received slightly more than 1 inch or rain since Thursday. In my last entry ("Where's an Ark When You Need One"), I indicated that we had received 8 inches of rain since this time last Saturday. So, that brings our total to just over 9 inches for that time period, and we do have more rain in the forecast for the days ahead. Now that amount is roughly half of our average annual rainfall, and we've received that in a single week. That's a pretty good indication of how saturated things are here. And places to the southeast of us (Junction, Mason, Llano, etc) have received much more than we have. At least the temperatures have improved, and our high today should be comfortably in the 60s.

Currently, there are rain showers hovering to the south of us along the Interstate 10 corridor, especially around areas that certainly don't need any more rain right now, like Junction, which has flooded twice in the past 2 weeks or so.

Area lake totals are looking very good right now, probably the best I've seen since we've lived here going back to 2011. Our source lake, O.H. Ivie, is at 30.9% capacity, and that should continue to increase in the days to come as the Colorado River around Ballinger has been at flood level. Twin Buttes is at 41.9% right now. It is fed by the Middle Concho and a couple of creeks. Frankly, I'm surprised at its dramatic increase, as I did not realize our watershed to the west had received so much rain. O.C. Fisher at the state park has not fared as well, and it currently sits at only 14.3% capacity. It's major source is the North Concho, which begins to the northwest near Big Spring.

We are very, very grateful for this rainfall, as it means we have enough water to last for a few more years. But I do worry about our farmers. Since this is harvest time for them, they are facing a great challenge.