Overnight Storm Brings Flooding Rains and Spectacular Lightning
July 15th, 2012 at 11:00 am by davidyeomans under Weather
A brief overnight flare-up of showers and thunderstorms over central Texas brought flooding rains and an incredible lightning show to Williamson and Travis counties.
The storms came and went fairly quickly – firing around 11pm and dissipating around 1am – but still managed to leave their mark in a big way. A Flash Flood Warning was issued for parts of Williamson and Travis counties, citing heavy rain rates and street flooding. Spicewood Springs Rd. between Old Lampasas Trail and Loop 360 was closed for a period of time early this morning due to flooding.
Eastern parts of the city were spared from the storm, as ABIA only received 0.01″ of rain overnight. Camp Mabry, however, got an impressive 1.28″. An LCRA rain gauge at Bull Creek & Loop 360 was the night’s winner, with a storm total of 2.10″! A snippet of the rainfall record from this LCRA gauge can be seen below (and also on LCRA’s Hydromet page).
| Jul 15 2012 1:55AM | 0.01″ | |
| Jul 15 2012 1:40AM | 0.00″ | |
| Jul 15 2012 1:25AM | 0.00″ | |
| Jul 15 2012 1:10AM | 0.01″ | |
| Jul 15 2012 12:55AM | 0.02″ | |
| Jul 15 2012 12:40AM | 0.39″ | |
| Jul 15 2012 12:25AM | 0.70″ | |
| Jul 15 2012 12:10AM | 0.41″ | |
| Jul 14 2012 11:55PM | 0.06″ | |
| Jul 14 2012 11:40PM | 0.13″ | |
| Jul 14 2012 11:25PM | 0.33″ | |
| Jul 14 2012 11:10PM | 0.04″ |
Rainfall is recorded every 15 minutes on these automated gauges. The 0.70″ rain total between 12:10am and 12:25am calculates out to a rain rate of 2.8 inches per hour! This was an extremely heavy downpour.
The rapidly-intensifying storms also produced a spectacular lightning show for all of Austin to see. If you have any photos of the lightning last night, please send them to reportit@kxan.com or use the Report It button on our free KXAN smartphone app. Have a great Sunday!
What can we expect the recent rains to do to the lake levels, especially Lake Travis, and to the aquifer? I am assuming that the runoff from the surrounding areas has to cause a lake swell. Certainly not 40′, but something appreciable. Right or wrong?
Many thanx!
Thanks for the question – one that is certainly on everyone’s mind these days.
The easy answer is yes, heavy rainfall over our area can lead to an increase in lake levels. Unfortunately, most of the heaviest totals from the past week’s storms have been just downstream of the hills and creeks that drain into Lakes Buchanan and Travis. Many areas downstream (in the Austin metro, for example) have seen 4-8″ in the past two weeks, while to our northwest totals have been mainly in the 1-3″ range.
Another factor limiting lake level rise with recent storms is the fact that the ground was extremely dry when this rainfall episode began, so it soaked up a lot of the precipitation instead of allowing it to runoff into the lakes.
It is due to these factors that we’ve only been able to yield around a 1 foot rise in Lake Travis. We would need a more prolonged period of soaking rains on already-saturated ground to raise lake levels significantly.
THE RAIN CLEARED THE SKY OF >>>THE HEAVY CHEMTRAIL SMOG here in GEORGETOWN.
IT IS NICE TO SSE THE BLUE SKY AGAIN …….
UNTIL THE CHEMTRAIL SPRAY RETURNS in GEORGETOWN.
WHY do you NOT report ON CHEMTRAIL POLLUTION that causes the SMOG in Austin???