The scheduled lowering of Lake Austin in October-November has been cancelled. Read more.
Lakes Buchanan and Travis are the two water supply reservoirs in the Highland Lakes system. Both lakes fluctuate, capturing water during rainy times to provide water supply for our region during drier times.\u00A0
On July 1, LCRA determined a limited amount of stored water from the Highland Lakes would be available to downstream agricultural operations for the second growing season in 2026 under criteria in LCRA’s Water Management Plan. Read more about LCRA’s\u00A0water supply operations.\u00A0
","section2":"The top of conservation pool elevation of Lake Buchanan is 1,020 feet msl and the top of conservation pool elevation of Lake Travis is 681 feet msl.
One acre-foot (a-f) is the amount of water it takes to cover 1 acre 1 foot deep.\u00A0 One a-f\u00A0equals 43,560 cubic feet, or 325,851 gallons.
","section3":"Inflows to the Highland Lakes are measured at four streamflow gauges shown in the table above. A runoff factor is applied to the measured flow to account for additional inflows that may occur downstream of each gauge.","section4":"Note: The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Bay City Gauge is strongly affected by tides from the Gulf of Mexico and provisional gauge readings may be inaccurate when flow in the river at Bay City is low, below about 2,300 cfs.\u00A0 Provisional data is subject to revision by the USGS.
","section5":"Releases are made to meet customer or environmental needs.\u00A0 The schedule for today’s hydroelectric generation is competitive electric market\u00A0information, and is not available to the public.
","section6":"*Read more on the 2020 Water Management Plan’s criteria for instream flow conditions and environmental flows.
","section7":"*Read more on the 2020 Water Management Plan’s criteria for instream flow conditions and environmental flows.
**Freshwater inflows to Matagorda Bay are calculated using flow at the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Bay City gauge minus the water diverted from the river downstream of the Bay City gauge. However, the Bay City gauge is strongly affected by tides from the Gulf of Mexico and readings may be inaccurate when flow at Bay City is below about 2,300 cfs. At those flows, LCRA estimates the flow at Bay City based on flow at an upstream stream gauge, not influenced by tide, minus water diverted downstream of the stream gauge.\u00A0 From January through February of 2018, LCRA estimated the flow at Bay City using the Lane City gauge.\u00A0 Due to construction activities at the Lane City Dam beginning in March 2018, LCRA will estimate the flow using the USGS Wharton gauge.
Calculation for the Two-Month Inflow includes releases for Bay & Estuary requirements made from the Highland Lakes and from Arbuckle Reservoir for the previous month.
","section8":"Oct 12 2024 7:45AM
Short term lake level forecasts for Buchanan and Travis:
Buchanan
Tomorrow = 1018.5 ft msl
One Week = 1018.4 ft msl
Travis
Tomorrow = 677.8 ft msl
One Week = 677.7 ft msl