Jump to content

2018 Rain Thread

Hollywood

By Hollywood
in Daily Texan

 Share

Recommended Posts

UTEX_ME

UTEX_ME 4766

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, irishtexan said:

So according to uslakes.com, Travis went from 667 to 691 yesterday. Twenty four fucking feet in 24 hours. Is that the largest single-day rise in history? Even the memorial day flood didn't put this much water in the lake. Did the Lake Travis basin just get hammered in a way that we didn't get it in Austin? It's been raining on and off, sometimes heavy, but it hasn't seemed like this has been a particularly catastrophic amount of rain. Was it just that the ground was already saturated? This seems like a lot of water from not a "noah's arc" amount of rain. 

LBJ Basin (Llano) took the brunt of the rain it seems. Wirtz dam is not designed to hold that amount of water though, so it gets sent downstream to Travis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 2.4k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

South Austin
South Austin

I'd keep playing.  I don't think the heavy stuff is gonna come down for quite a while.

RamjetFDO
RamjetFDO

Sorry ... just had to read it in this voice:  

NorthLoop
NorthLoop

That's called dusk

troph

troph 24898

Posted
Posted
So according to uslakes.com, Travis went from 667 to 691 yesterday. Twenty four fucking feet in 24 hours. Is that the largest single-day rise in history? Even the memorial day flood didn't put this much water in the lake. Did the Lake Travis basin just get hammered in a way that we didn't get it in Austin? It's been raining on and off, sometimes heavy, but it hasn't seemed like this has been a particularly catastrophic amount of rain. Was it just that the ground was already saturated? This seems like a lot of water from not a "noah's arc" amount of rain. 

b7445ac60368be98afdfbaca6a59a886.png

 

Those are two week totals only west of Travis. Short answer is yes, much more rain west of Austin and these totals were after 3-4 weeks of ground saturating rain in September.

 

You can actually see the totals dropping east and even within the LT basin but marble falls, inks and LBJ are constant levels essentially so the tan basin totals end up in Travis without much hold back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
irishtexan

irishtexan 11522

Posted
Posted
Just now, troph said:


b7445ac60368be98afdfbaca6a59a886.png

Those are two week totals only west of Travis. Short answer is yes, much more rain west of Austin and these totals were after 3-4 weeks of ground saturating rain in September.

Is that an unprecedented amount of rain? I understand it's a whole lot. But this just seems crazy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hornian

hornian 5222

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, irishtexan said:

So according to uslakes.com, Travis went from 667 to 691 yesterday. Twenty four fucking feet in 24 hours. Is that the largest single-day rise in history? Even the memorial day flood didn't put this much water in the lake. Did the Lake Travis basin just get hammered in a way that we didn't get it in Austin? It's been raining on and off, sometimes heavy, but it hasn't seemed like this has been a particularly catastrophic amount of rain. Was it just that the ground was already saturated? This seems like a lot of water from not a "noah's arc" amount of rain. 

IIRC, Travis caught 40 feet of water in one day back in the 1950's. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
HOOKEM4

HOOKEM4 5039

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, irishtexan said:

So according to uslakes.com, Travis went from 667 to 691 yesterday. Twenty four fucking feet in 24 hours. Is that the largest single-day rise in history? Even the memorial day flood didn't put this much water in the lake. Did the Lake Travis basin just get hammered in a way that we didn't get it in Austin? It's been raining on and off, sometimes heavy, but it hasn't seemed like this has been a particularly catastrophic amount of rain. Was it just that the ground was already saturated? This seems like a lot of water from not a "noah's arc" amount of rain. 

The elevation change doesn't really reflect the true change.  If the lake were empty when this flood hit, it would have come up way more than 24 feet. I would be interested to know what the greatest 24-hr inflow volume was.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hornian

hornian 5222

Posted
Posted
Just now, UTEX_ME said:

LT expected to rise between 705 and 710 by Friday. This will be Christmas 1991 flood territory. 

Yikes. Gotta go check on the lake house again. According to neighbors it's never had water in it, but in Christmas flood the house next door had 4 inches in it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
irishtexan

irishtexan 11522

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, HOOKEM4 said:

The elevation change doesn't really reflect the true change.  If the lake were empty when this flood hit, it would have come up way more than 24 feet. I would be interested to know what the greatest 24-hr inflow volume was.

Which, with the lake being at 667 feet as opposed to 630 that it was before the memorial day flood, makes this even more mind-boggling.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
SuingToGetAMessageBoard?

SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861

Posted
Posted
22 minutes ago, irishtexan said:

So according to uslakes.com, Travis went from 667 to 691 yesterday. Twenty four fucking feet in 24 hours. Is that the largest single-day rise in history? Even the memorial day flood didn't put this much water in the lake. Did the Lake Travis basin just get hammered in a way that we didn't get it in Austin? It's been raining on and off, sometimes heavy, but it hasn't seemed like this has been a particularly catastrophic amount of rain. Was it just that the ground was already saturated? This seems like a lot of water from not a "noah's arc" amount of rain. 

every year there's a little more impermeable ground cover too, so more gets sent to the lakes instead of being absorbed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
HOOKEM4

HOOKEM4 5039

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, irishtexan said:

Which, with the lake being at 667 feet as opposed to 630 that it was before the memorial day flood, makes this even more mind-boggling.

Certainly. I wonder what the Christmas flood, or any of those Memorial day floods brought in. I remember moving docks all night years ago and water coming up 2-3 foot an hour most of the night. One of the Memorial day floods I believe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Anastasis

Anastasis 23481

Posted
Posted

Lake Travis is expected to rise to 705 to 710 feet msl by Friday, Oct. 19.  No changes to current gate operations are planned at Mansfield Dam at this time.  Forecasts for Lake Travis may rise with additional rainfall, upstream or downstream of Mansfield Dam.

 

From the LCRA op report that was referenced earlier. They also point out that rain basically anywhere, upstream or down, is going to have potential impacts. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
HOOKEM4

HOOKEM4 5039

Posted
Posted
Just now, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

every year there's a little more impermeable ground cover too, so more gets sent to the lakes instead of being absorbed.

Theoretically that storm water is attenuated, but this is certainly a factor since the water is coming in from the wild west.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
UTEX_ME

UTEX_ME 4766

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, HOOKEM4 said:

Certainly. I wonder what the Christmas flood, or any of those Memorial day floods brought in. I remember moving docks all night years ago and water coming up 2-3 foot an hour most of the night. One of the Memorial day floods I believe.

Quote

Lake Travis rose 33 feet over four days. 

http://www.floodsafety.com/texas/documentaries/d1991/index.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites
crash_davis

crash_davis 23114

Posted
Posted

holy shit.

 

https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/man-rescued-after-going-over-starcke-dam-and-floating-downstream/1529689463

 

Quote

MARBLE FALLS, Texas (KXAN) — A man survived going over the Starcke Dam and floating downstream Tuesday.

Neighbors in Spicewood who happened to be in the right place at the right time came to the man's rescue.

"I heard 'help, help me.' It was real faint. It was like, did I just hear that?" said Spicewood resident Mike Zsembik.

Zsembik and two other neighbors spotted the man fighting to stay afloat in the Colorado River.

Luckily for the man, the currents pushed him close enough to the shore where Zsembik and others could throw him a life preserver.

"He's trying to start the boat, and the next thing you know, he said he just went over, over the dam. He said he went under like five or six times. He said I was about ready to give up. I said I'm glad you didn't," said Zsembik.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
USCATX

USCATX 1078

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, UTEX_ME said:

LCRA just updated their flood op report

Daaamn.  Sent my mom to look at our marina on lake Travis since we are on vacation in Mexico and West Beach road already had 4’ of standing water on it this AM.  Another 10’ would be nuts.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Chet Steadman

Chet Steadman 940

Posted
Posted
49 minutes ago, irishtexan said:

So according to uslakes.com, Travis went from 667 to 691 yesterday. Twenty four fucking feet in 24 hours. Is that the largest single-day rise in history? Even the memorial day flood didn't put this much water in the lake. Did the Lake Travis basin just get hammered in a way that we didn't get it in Austin? It's been raining on and off, sometimes heavy, but it hasn't seemed like this has been a particularly catastrophic amount of rain. Was it just that the ground was already saturated? This seems like a lot of water from not a "noah's arc" amount of rain. 

Far from it.  I believe the record is almost 50’ in a 24hr period.  

Regarding the rainfall, it just takes the right amount of rain to fall in the right places.  Twelve inches in 48-72 hours in the L.T. basin and City of Austin (not unlike two years ago,) and the lake barely moves.  But you get that same rain only a few miles north and west and it’s historic increases.     

Holy moly: the latest from LCRA is projecting 705’-710’.  That’s incredible.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
texhorn

texhorn 351

Posted
Posted (edited)
22 minutes ago, LonghornJones said:

4 ft per hour? I'm having a hard time with that.

The lake was also really low at the time, something like 30% full.  Inflows at a low lake level will fill the lake much faster as opposed to when the lake is mostly full already. I bet the inflows we were seeing yesterday are not drastically below the 1952 levels... 

Edited by texhorn
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...