As students return to school, teachers are asking, “Where did you go for summer vacation?” I guess I’m wondering where Lake Travis went for summer vacation because it’s no where to be seen from my back yard due to low lake levels!
Lake Travis is one of 5 Highland Lakes along the Colorado River in Central Texas. Full pool level is 681 feet above sea level. Currently the lake is at 633 feet. That’s 48 feet low!
The news likes to report that it’s 30 feet below average for this time of year but I think that misleads people. I’ve seen plenty of summers when the lake is “normal” at 681 feet. This is not a normal summer. Central Texas continues to suffer “exceptional drought” conditions. We haven’t seen a summer this dry in Austin since the 1980’s, and even then, Lake Travis did not get quite this low.
The interesting weather phenomena to note after that hot summer in the mid 1980’s is that the 100 degree summer days were followed by incredibly cold winters that included enough snow to warrant some serious sledding and snowman-building. I wonder if we’ll be playing in 8 inches of powder come January?
This past weekend, we took the boat up the 63 mile lake… but we only made it 46 miles. We almost reached Ridge Harbor where the lake was maybe 200 feet wide with weeds poking up in the middle of the channel. We opted to turn around and go back home. During low lake levels in the year 2000, I rode in my neighbor’s boat all the way up to the Narrows, where we turned around when we saw cows standing in the middle of the channel. This year, we didn’t make it nearly as far upstream. My mother-in-law says she remembers the boating on Lake Travis in 1963 when the lake level reached 615 and said it was like traveling down a river surrounded by tall canyon walls. I sure hope we don’t see it get that low this year.
Lake Travis: If you’re out there, come home. We miss you! Summer vacation is over.
