Current Lake Levels

Lake (Dam)	Date/Time of Last Report	Lake Level (ft msl)	7 Days Ago (ft msl)	30 Days Ago (ft msl)
Buchanan (Buchanan)	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	1,005.92	1,006.53	1,007.25
Inks (Inks)	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	887.00	887.11	887.19
LBJ (Wirtz)	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	824.64	824.67	824.63
Marble Falls (Starcke)	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	736.50	736.35	736.62
Travis (Mansfield)	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	640.80	641.02	641.71
Austin (Miller)	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	492.09	492.43	492.28
Bastrop (Bastrop)	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	449.99	449.80	449.82

Aug 27 2024 6:51 AM
Short term lake level forecasts for Buchanan and Travis:

Buchanan
Tomorrow = 1005.8 ft msl
One Week = 1005.2 ft msl

Travis
Tomorrow = 640.7 ft msl
One Week = 640.5 ft msl

Current Storage In Lakes Buchanan and Travis

Lake	Date/Time of Last Report	Lake Level (ft msl)	Historical August Average (ft)	Difference From Average (ft)
Buchanan	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	1,005.92	1,010.79	-4.87
Travis	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	640.80	663.80	-23.00

Lake	Date/Time of Last Report	Current Storage (a-f)	Current Percent Full	Storage When Full (a-f)	Difference From Full (a-f)
Buchanan	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	590,337	67 %	880,356	-290,019
Travis	Aug 27 2024 8:15AM	528,950	47 %	1,115,076	-586,126
Totals		1,119,287	56 %	1,995,432	-876,145

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.

Under an agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Lake Buchanan is maintained at or below 1,018 feet msl from May through October, and at or below 1,020 feet msl the rest of the year.  Read more about the management of Lake Buchanan. 

One acre-foot (a-f) is the amount of water it takes to cover 1 acre 1 foot deep.  One a-f equals 43,560 cubic feet, or 325,851 gallons.

Upstream Flow Conditions and Gauged Inflows

Location	Date/Time of Last Report	Current Flow (cfs)	Previous Day Average Flow (cfs)	Previous Day Flow Volume (a-f)
Colorado River near San Saba	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	17	14	29
Llano River at Llano	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	86	93	184
Sandy Creek at Hwy 71 near Kingsland	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	0	0	0
Pedernales River near Johnson City	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	1	0	1

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.

Yesterday’s total gauged inflows into the Highland Lakes were 215 acre-feet.

Downstream Flow Conditions

Location	Date/Time of Last Report	Current Flow (cfs)	Previous Day Average Flow (cfs)	Previous Day Flow Volume (a-f)
Colorado River at Austin	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	190	304	604
Colorado River at Bastrop	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	489	477	945
Colorado River at Smithville	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	570	524	1,039
Colorado River above La Grange	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	637	576	1,142
Colorado River at Columbus	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	412	377	747
Colorado River near Altair	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	382	347	687
Colorado River at Wharton	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	95	99	197
Colorado River at Bay City	Aug 27 2024 8:25AM	402	249	493

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.  Provisional data is subject to revision by the USGS.

Previous Day Releases

Lake (dam)	Approximate Time of Release	Average Discharge (cfs)	Discharge Volume(a-f)
Buchanan (Buchanan)	Aug 26 2024: 5-10 pm	694	1,377
Inks (Inks)	Aug 26 2024: 5-11 pm	792	1,571
LBJ (Wirtz)	Aug 26 2024: 6-10 pm	693	1,375
Marble Falls (Starcke)	Aug 26 2024: 7-11 pm	740	1,468
Travis (Mansfield)	Aug 26 2024: 5-11 pm	568	1,127
Austin (Miller)	Aug 26 2024: 7-11 pm	285	565

Releases are made to meet customer or environmental needs.  The schedule for today’s hydroelectric generation is competitive electric market information, and is not available to the public.

Instream Flow Conditions and Environmental Criteria

Location	*Criteria for Minimum Flow (cfs)	Previous Day Minimum Flow (cfs)	*Criteria for Daily Average Flow (cfs)	Previous Day Average Flow (cfs)
Colorado River at Austin	50	91		304
Colorado River at Bastrop	98	453	123	477
Colorado River at Columbus			190	376
Colorado River at Wharton			107	99

*Read more on the 2020 Water Management Plan’s criteria for instream flow conditions and environmental flows.

Freshwater Inflows to Matagorda Bay

Month	Inflow Category in Effect	*Criteria for Monthly Inflow (a-f)	**Monthly Inflow (a-f)	*Criteria for Two-Month Inflow (a-f)	Two-Month Inflow (a-f)
January	Threshold Only	15,000	298,558	n/a	323,967
February	Threshold Only	15,000	127,564	n/a	426,122
March	Threshold Only	15,000	58,964	n/a	186,528
April	Threshold Only	15,000	34,623	n/a	93,587
May	Threshold Only	15,000	45,878	n/a	80,501
June	Threshold Only	15,000	35,709	n/a	81,587
July	Threshold Only	15,000	129,032	n/a	164,741
August	Threshold Only	15,000		n/a
September	Threshold Only	15,000		n/a
October	Threshold Only	15,000		n/a
November
December
Annual Total		150,000	730,328

*Read more 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.  From January through February of 2018, LCRA estimated the flow at Bay City using the Lane City gauge.  Due to construction activities at the Lane City Dam beginning in March 2018, LCRA will estimate the flow using the USGS Wharton gauge.