Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Levels slowly rising, but still in Critical Stage

Drought Stage: Critical
Barton Springs: 38 cfs (38.8 cfs 10-day average) and falling
Lovelady: 196.0 ft depth to water and slowly rising

The recent rains have put a major dent in the annual deficit. But to date they have not busted the drought. As stated below, we need more rain to get out of our groundwater drought.

Barton Springs has responded very quickly to the rainfall, rising up to nearly 50 cfs. However, the rise is only temporary and has already started to decline. Conversely, the Lovelady Well is slowly rising in response to the modest amount of recharge. Although the behavior of each drought trigger appears to give conflicting information, the response is expected. Barton Springs will respond to minor recharge events, while the Lovelady Well will not. In this case, the Lovelady well is a better representation of the effective recharge to the system. It shows a modest increase in storage, but is not yet above its drought thresholds.

No comments: