This article was originally posted in the Wednesday, June 24, 2015 issue of the Austin American Statesman. Read the original article here.
LCRA: So far, heavy rains not enough to break drought
By Patrick Beach
The drought’s not over.
That was the word Wednesday from John Hofmann, who oversees various river, irrigation, dam and resource operations for the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA). Despite the El Niño weather pattern and the Memorial Day weekend floods and a tropical storm named Bill that was more damaging east and north of Central Texas — despite lakes Travis and Buchanan being at 70 percent of capacity — we’re still in a drought.
The news came during a presentation at the LCRA complex with Hofmann and other agency officials.
“It’s not just about storage. It’s also about inflow patterns we’re seeing. Those two months (May and June) do not a drought break,” Hofmann said.
He noted that some 400,000 acre-feet of water flowed into the lakes in May, almost double the average, and said that month was the first since March 2012 to see above-average inflows.
LCRA meteorologist Bob Rose summarized the wet spring — including the wettest January to June on record — and predicted that as El Niño lingers into the fall and winter, wetter and cooler-than-normal weather likely is ahead for the foreseeable future.
“This may turn out being an incredibly wet year,” said Rose, who noted that Wednesday’s presentation had to be twice rescheduled because of heavy rain or the threat thereof. “I’m starting to have my doubts about whether we’re going to have any (100-degree days) this year.”
Nonetheless, Rose urged caution and vigilance, noting that it was heavy rain and flooding that broke what was then the drought of record in the late 1950s. But, Rose said, drought returned again around 1963.
“The pattern could change to something like that in just a couple of years,” Rose said. “We’re definitely in an anomaly.”
The drought’s not over.
That was the word Wednesday from John Hofmann, who oversees various river, irrigation, dam and resource operations for the Lower Colorado River Authority. Despite the El Niño weather pattern and the Memorial Day weekend floods and a tropical storm named Bill that was more damaging east and north of Central Texas — despite lakes Travis and Buchanan being at 70 percent of capacity — we’re still in a drought.