Posted: Tue, 8 Aug 2017 08:09 AM - 56,912 Readers

By: Jeff Stensland

The heavy overnight rain fell right over the Highland Lakes and the Lower Colorado River Authority opened up floodgates on two of its lakes to make room.

Lake Buchanan is one of the largest lakes, and it is the largest, high lake as far as area is concerned. it is about the same size as Lake Travis in regards to volume.



The lake rose about three-fourths of a foot since Sunday at around 10 p.m., capping out now at about 1,017.4 feet above median sea level.  McKenna Dam is what holds this lake in place.

Now they haven't had to do any flood operations, but they have had to do that in a couple different places downstream that are operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority.



According to our radar systems, there are types of prediction software that we have with the weather department and it shows that this is actually about the area around Lake Buchanan which saw the most rainfall overnight.

Some places saw at least 7 inches to even more than 8 inches according to radar estimates.



"The intensity of the rain picked up. When it gets that intense and the ground is that dry, the water has nowhere to go,” said Segal.

img src="http://www.twcnews.com/content/dam/News/static/Embedded%20Images/Images/lakebucannon6.JPG" alt="" align="none" width="675">

Some of the water is absorbed, some of it isn't, in other words Segal said one needs to have a happy medium. If it's too dry it won't let any water in and also if it's too wet if it is saturated and of course it won't have any more room to take in water.



Now we know about 4.8 inches fell in one particular area, due to a weather gauge which is one of dozens that are operated. Unless you're a robot, it is the most accurate forecast and measurement data across our region and McKenna Dam.

*  Story Contributed by: Jeff Stensland