June Aquifer Update

Drought Status: Non-drought

Lovelady: 136.5 ft depth to water

Barton Springs: 85 cfs

Lovelady is currently at 136.5 ft as of today and has reached its "plateau." The rains a couple week ago have probably helped it maintain this level, which is the same depth as the last blog entry on 6/9. Nearly all other Edwards monitor wells are showing a declining trend for the past few weeks. I would expect the Lovelady well to start declining (relatively) rapidly over the next month. Conversely, the Trinity levels in our area are still rising, but at a slower pace. Water levels in those wells will soon plateau and start their decent.

Barton Springs is currently at 85 cfs, down from 90 at the blog entry. It will start a rapid decline in the coming months without more rains.

Climate Forecast

The Climate Prediction Center is indicating that: "Conditions are favorable for a transition to La Niña conditions during June – August 2010."

Unfortunately, La Niña conditions generally mean hotter and drier weather than normal for central Texas. While water levels are sufficient to sustain us through the summer, a dry Fall could put us into drought conditions by summer 2011. Let's hope it is a short-lived La Niña.

Click here to find out more.

June Aquifer Update

Aquifer Status: Non-drought
Barton Springs flow: ~89 cfs (88 10-day average)
Lovelady Well: 136.5 ft depth to water

April and May rainfall were a bit below average and so both Barton Springs and the Lovelady well reached a peak and are now starting to level off their rise and even start to decline. This is their normal hydrologic response as we enter into hotter and drier conditions. Storage in the aquifer is high enough that we will likely avoid drought declarations this summer.