Hurricane Beryl missed Austin; the next storm could fill Central Texas lakes
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Hurricane Beryl crashed onto the Texas coast as a Category 1 hurricane. Before that, it broke records, becoming the earliest Category 5 hurricane to ever form in the Atlantic Ocean.
It could have hit Austin. It didn't. Now, the water crisis continues.
"Lake Travis right now is is in one of its record low periods. The lowest that it's ever been was in the drought of the 1950s," said John Hofmann, executive vice president of water for the Lower Colorado River Authority.
During the drought of the 1950s, Lake Travis was bone dry. In 1952, a decaying tropical storm moved across Texas, west of the path Beryl is taking, and dropped several inches of rain over Lake Travis.
"That part dumped 26 inches of rain. Lake Travis filled overnight — literally, it rose 50 feet in 18 hours," said KXAN forecaster Jim Spencer.
It would take an event like this to fill Lake Travis over the summer months.
"Some kind of tropical system that comes inland stalls and drops a lot of rainfall. That's about our only hope for a really wet summertime around here," Spencer said.
Spencer said similar events happened in 1997 and 2002.
Where does a hurricane need to hit to fill Lake Travis?
While rain over Austin is great, it doesn't help our lakes. Beryl's path takes it along our eastern counties, dropping potentially buckets of rain on them and the coast.
However, we need a hurricane to hit west of Austin for it do any good for Lake Travis.
"Anything that happens in the Llano or the Pedernales, will flow directly into eventually like Travis," Hofmann said.
Two watersheds feed Lake Travis. The Lake LBJ watershed and the Lake Travis watershed. Both feed into Lake Travis, providing it the majority of its water.
Lake Buchanan, which filled earlier this spring as a result of rain further to the north west, does feed into Lake Travis through the highland lake system. Still, it is not enough.
Also, we can't just drain Lake Buchanan into Lake Travis. The constant flow of the highland lakes is needed to operate several hydroelectric dams.
Planning for future hurricanes
All that water Beryl is dropping will unfortunately just run off. Currently, we don't have a way to capture and reuse it.
This October, LCRA will begin operations of the Arbuckle Reservoir. Arbuckle can add up to ninety thousand acre-feet-of-water to area's water supply, according to the LCRA.
Arbuckle, located southwest of Houston, will be able to provide water to rice farmers along the coast. It is important to note that it will not provide water to Central Texas as it is further downstream.
The reservoir was originally scheduled to be open in 2018. However, while testing the reservoir, the team discovered that water was being pushed out through the soil below and into nearby streams, delaying its opening.