Posted: Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:46 PM - 8,064 Readers

By: Jim Bergamo

photo by KVUE News

All the rain might lead us to think that the drought and water restrictions may soon be a thing of the past -- but that's not the case.

KVUE News last dropped in on Ed and Dolly Golden in July 2009, when the triple digit temperatures were causing them to do a double-take after their utility bills had more than doubled.

"$315.36 for May and $487.74 for June. It was a shock cause we had been have $120, $140, $150 in the first part of the year then all of a sudden it's up to over $400," Ed Golden said in a July interview.

Nearly three months and six inches of rain later, KVUE found Ed Golden perched atop his swimming pool ladder with a different concern.

"You can look down into Shoal Creek to see if it is coming into our house like it did in '81, but it is not," he said.

In 1981, the Golden's say they experienced nearly two feet of floodwaters in their home. With Shoal Creek churning, but nowhere close to overflowing -- the Golden's just enjoyed the change in the weather that arrived on the first day of fall.

"Very thankful," Dolly Golden said.

"Sixty-nine days of 100 degree weather to now... hopefully 70-80 degree weather," Ed Golden said.

"After the hottest June, July and August on record for Austin, to have fall actually start on the first day of fall is extremely unusual," said KVUE Storm Team Chief Meteorologist Mark Murray.

Murray says after high pressure sat over Central Texas all summer, the El Nino weather pattern is starting to shift towards what's historically is a wetter fall and winter, and so far he says we've already experienced six inches of rain this month, making it the wettest month since July 2007.

"It was the right combination of factors. We had an unusually strong cold front, we had lots of Gulf moisture, we had Pacific moisture and an upper level low spinning just north of Texas, and all those factors just magically came together and gave us about three inches of rain this morning," he said.

But Murray says despite the recent rain, which has the waters rushing at Waller Creek and Town Lake rushing, as well -- the drought is by no means over. So don't look for water restrictions to be lifted any time soon.

"The rain is great, and we are really happy to see it but... we are going to need a lot more before we can get the lakes up to the level that we can lift the water restrictions," said Daryl Slusher, with Austin Water Utilities.

According to the LCRA, even though last week's rain helped bump Lake Travis levels up a foot, in the week or so since then, relatively hot temperatures and saturation have caused that water to evaporate. In fact, despite Tuesday's rain, Lake Travis levels have actually dropped more than a foot and remain 51 feet below normal.

*  Story Contributed by: Jim Bergamo