Good morning. This is the Lake Houston Today levels and weather post for Sunday, October 11. There are no flood watches, flood warnings or flash flood alerts in effect for Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties this morning. Both lakes are sitting in their normal range, and the forecast is dry through tonight with a chance of showers and thunderstorms returning Monday afternoon.
Lake levels at a glance
| Lake | Level | Percent full | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Houston | 42.46 feet | 100.0 percent | 5:30 a.m. Central, October 11 |
| Lake Conroe | 199.76 feet | 94.2 percent | October 11 daily value |
The two columns come from two different services on two different schedules. The elevation figure for Lake Houston is the USGS intraday gauge reading taken at 5:30 this morning. The percent full figures for both lakes, and the elevation for Lake Conroe, are Texas Water Development Board daily values rather than intraday readings, so they carry a date rather than a clock time.
Lake Houston
The USGS gauge at Lk Houston nr Sheldon, TX, site number 08072000, read 42.46 feet at 5:30 a.m. Central on Sunday, October 11.
Across the past 48 hours the gauge recorded 190 readings in a range of 42.41 to 42.54 feet. That is a spread of thirteen hundredths of a foot over two days, which is ordinary movement for this lake and carries no flood signal. This morning’s reading sits in the middle of that band after the lake eased down through Friday and Saturday and then steadied overnight.
The Texas Water Development Board daily value for October 11 is 42.46 feet and 100.0 percent of conservation capacity, which matches the USGS reading exactly today. Lake Houston normally sits at or near 100 percent of its conservation pool, so a full reading here is the usual state of the lake and not a warning sign in itself.
Lake Conroe
The Texas Water Development Board daily value for Lake Conroe on October 11 is 199.76 feet and 94.2 percent full. That is down from 199.78 feet and 94.3 percent on October 10, a decline of about two hundredths of a foot in a day. The lake has now eased down a little each day since October 8, which reads as a slow seasonal drawdown rather than a release event.
Lake Conroe matters to readers in the Lake Houston area 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 paper carries it alongside the Lake Houston gauge every day.
The forecast
Today: Sunny, with a high near 90. South wind 0 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation 0 percent. The National Weather Service did not give a heat index value for this period.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 69. Southeast wind 0 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation near 0 percent. No heat index value was given.
Monday, Columbus Day: Mostly sunny, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon, with the best chance between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. High near 90. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 40 percent. No heat index value was given.
Active weather alerts
There are none. The National Weather Service has no active alerts of any kind for Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties this morning. Six alerts were active across Texas at the time of this reading, and none of them covered these three counties. The air quality alert for Harris County that was in effect through Saturday evening has expired and was not renewed.
Sources
Lake Houston elevation from the USGS National Water Information System, gauge 08072000. Percent full figures and the Lake Conroe elevation from the Texas Water Development Board reservoir monitoring service. Forecast and alerts from the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston office. USGS gauge readings are provisional and subject to revision.
