Good morning. There are no flood alerts in effect for Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties this Tuesday morning, October 13. Both Lake Houston and Lake Conroe are sitting in their normal range, and nothing in the gauge record or the forecast points to a drainage problem. The item worth planning around today is heat, not water.
Lake Levels at a Glance
| Lake | Level | Percent full | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Houston | 42.42 feet | 100.0 percent | 5:30 a.m. Central, Tuesday, October 13 |
| Lake Conroe | 199.72 feet | 94.0 percent | Daily value for Tuesday, October 13 |
Lake Houston percent full is the Texas Water Development Board daily value. Lake Conroe is a once daily reading and does not carry a time of day.
Lake Houston
The USGS gauge at Lk Houston nr Sheldon, TX, site 08072000, read 42.42 feet at 5:30 a.m. Central on Tuesday, October 13.
Over the previous 48 hours the lake moved between 42.36 and 42.47 feet across 190 readings, a spread of about one tenth of a foot. That is ordinary movement for a lake this size. The level has drifted down slightly overnight and has held within two hundredths of a foot for the last hour and a half.
The Texas Water Development Board daily value for October 13 is 42.44 feet and 100.0 percent of conservation capacity, which agrees with the USGS gauge to within two hundredths of a foot. Lake Houston normally sits at or very near 100 percent of its conservation pool, because that pool is the level the lake is kept at for water supply. A reading of 100 percent is the everyday condition here and is not a sign that the lake is about to spill.
Lake Conroe
The Texas Water Development Board daily value for Lake Conroe on October 13 is 199.72 feet and 94.0 percent full, down from 199.73 feet and 94.1 percent on October 12. That is a drop of one hundredth of a foot in a day.
Lake Conroe has eased down a little every day since October 9, when it read 199.81 feet and 94.4 percent. Nine hundredths of a foot over four days reads as slow seasonal decline rather than a release event.
Lake Conroe belongs in a Lake Houston paper because San Jacinto River Authority releases from Lake Conroe flow down the West Fork of the San Jacinto River into Lake Houston. The upstream level is part of the local flooding picture in Kingwood, Humble and Atascocita, which is why this page carries it every morning and evening.
The Forecast
Today. A chance of showers and thunderstorms after 7 a.m., then mostly cloudy. High near 92, with temperatures falling to around 89 in the afternoon. Heat index values as high as 106. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 50 percent, with new rainfall of a tenth to a quarter of an inch possible.
Tonight. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7 p.m., then mostly cloudy. Low around 76. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 20 percent, with a tenth to a quarter of an inch possible.
Wednesday. Mostly sunny, with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m. High near 91, falling to around 87 in the afternoon. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 20 percent, with less than a tenth of an inch expected.
A heat index of 106 this afternoon is the number to plan around. No heat advisory is in effect for the Lake Houston area as of this reading, so that figure is the forecast value and not a warning. Rainfall totals stay under a quarter of an inch through Wednesday, which is well short of anything that moves a gauge.
Alerts
There are no active National Weather Service alerts for Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties.
One alert was active anywhere in Texas at the time of this reading, a Coastal Flood Advisory issued by the National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi for the Coastal Bend. It does not cover the Lake Houston area. Alerts are matched on county FIPS codes rather than on the text of the area description, which keeps advisories from other forecast offices out of this section.
Sources
Lake Houston elevation from the U.S. Geological Survey gauge 08072000. Percent full and the Lake Conroe reading from the Texas Water Development Board. Forecast and alerts from the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston office. Gauge readings are provisional and subject to revision by the USGS.
