Good morning from Lake Houston Today. Here is where the water stands and what the sky is doing on Wednesday, September 16. No flood watches, warnings or advisories are in effect for Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties this morning. Both lakes are sitting in their normal range, and the day’s weather story is heat rather than water.
Lake levels at a glance
| Lake | Level | Percent full | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Houston | 42.48 feet | 100.0% | 5:30 a.m. Central, Wednesday, September 16 |
| Lake Conroe | 199.85 feet | 94.6% | Daily value posted for September 16 |
Lake Houston: flat for a full day
The U.S. Geological Survey gauge at Lk Houston nr Sheldon, site number 08072000, read 42.48 feet at 5:30 a.m. Central on Wednesday, September 16.
That is the same figure the gauge carried at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and the same figure it carried at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. The lake has not moved a measurable amount in 24 hours.
Across the past 48 hours the gauge has logged 190 readings running back to 6:15 a.m. Monday, September 14, and the full range in that window is 42.40 to 42.50 feet, a spread of a tenth of a foot. The Texas Water Development Board separately lists Lake Houston at 100.0 percent of conservation capacity.
Lake Conroe: the slow decline resumes, and a data question closes
The Texas Water Development Board posts Lake Conroe at 199.85 feet and 94.6 percent full for September 16, down a hundredth of a foot from the 199.86 feet now posted for September 15. This is a once daily value rather than an intraday reading, so it carries a date but no timestamp.
Two earlier runs flagged that the board’s September 15 row for Lake Conroe appeared to be carried forward unchanged from September 14. That question is now settled: the board has since revised the September 15 figure down from 199.87 feet to 199.86 feet and posted a fresh September 16 row. The reservoir is continuing the gradual decline it has been on for more than a week, giving up roughly a hundredth to two hundredths of a foot a day, from 199.89 feet on September 13 to 199.85 feet today.
Lake Conroe sits in Montgomery County, well upstream of this coverage area, and it belongs in a Lake Houston paper for a plain physical reason. San Jacinto River Authority releases from Lake Conroe flow down the West Fork of the San Jacinto River and into Lake Houston. What the upstream reservoir is holding, and what it decides to let go, is part of the flooding picture in Kingwood, Humble and Atascocita.
Weather: hot, with a small chance of afternoon storms
Today. Mostly sunny, with a high near 95 and heat index values as high as 105. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m. East wind 0 to 5 mph.
Tonight. Partly cloudy, with a low around 77 and heat index values as high as 103. East wind 0 to 5 mph.
Thursday. Mostly sunny, with a high near 93 and temperatures falling to around 88 in the afternoon. Heat index values as high as 103. A chance of showers and thunderstorms between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. East wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30 percent, with new rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Active weather alerts: none here
There are no active National Weather Service alerts of any kind for Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties this morning. Three alerts were active across Texas at the time of this report, and none of them covers the Lake Houston area.
Worth noting for anyone working outside today: the Heat Advisory that covered Harris, Montgomery and Liberty counties on Tuesday expired at 7 p.m. Tuesday and has not been reissued, even though this morning’s forecast still carries a heat index as high as 105 this afternoon. No advisory does not mean no heat.
Sources
Lake Houston elevation from the U.S. Geological Survey gauge 08072000. Lake Conroe and Lake Houston storage and percent full from the Texas Water Development Board. Forecast and alerts from the National Weather Service in Houston/Galveston, forecast issued 1:21 a.m. Central. USGS gauge readings are provisional and subject to revision.
