This is the Monday evening reading for October 12. No flood alerts are active for Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties. Both lakes are in their normal operating range, and nothing in the three period forecast points to a drainage problem.
| Lake | Level | Percent full | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Houston | 42.42 feet | 100.0 percent | 5:30 p.m. Central, Monday, October 12 |
| Lake Conroe | 199.74 feet | 94.1 percent | Daily value for October 12 |
The two columns come from two different services on two different schedules. The Lake Houston elevation is an intraday gauge reading from the U.S. Geological Survey. The percent full figures and the Lake Conroe elevation are once daily values from the Texas Water Development Board. They are not a single reading taken at one moment.
Lake Houston
The USGS gauge at Lk Houston nr Sheldon, TX, site 08072000, read 42.42 feet at 5:30 p.m. Central on Monday, October 12. Across the previous 48 hours the lake ranged from 42.36 to 42.47 feet over 190 readings, a spread of eleven hundredths of a foot. It has been flat through the afternoon, holding within a hundredth of a foot for the last two hours. That is ordinary movement for a lake at its conservation level.
The Texas Water Development Board daily value for October 12 is 42.43 feet and 100.0 percent of conservation capacity, which agrees with the USGS gauge to within a hundredth 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 full is the usual state of this lake and not a sign that it is about to spill.
Lake Conroe
The Texas Water Development Board daily value for October 12 puts Lake Conroe at 199.74 feet and 94.1 percent full, down from 199.75 feet on October 11. That is a drop of one hundredth of a foot, with percent full unchanged. The lake has eased down a little each day since October 9, when it read 199.81 feet and 94.4 percent, which reads as slow seasonal decline rather than a release event.
Lake Conroe matters 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 it is carried here every run.
Weather
Tonight. A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 9 p.m., then mostly cloudy. Low around 77. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 30 percent, with new rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Tuesday. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 8 a.m. and noon, a chance of them through the early afternoon, and showers and thunderstorms likely between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Mostly cloudy. High near 91, with temperatures falling to around 87 in the afternoon. Heat index values as high as 103. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent, with new rainfall amounts between a tenth and a quarter of an inch possible.
Tuesday night. A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8 p.m., then mostly cloudy. Low around 76. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 30 percent, with new rainfall amounts between a tenth and a quarter of an inch possible.
Tuesday is the wetter of the two days, but the expected amounts stay under a quarter of an inch. A heat index of 103 is the item worth planning around, and no heat advisory is in effect.
Alerts
There are no active National Weather Service alerts for Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties. Three alerts were active across Texas at the time of this reading and none of them covers the Lake Houston area: a Coastal Flood Advisory from the Corpus Christi office, a Rip Current Statement from the Houston/Galveston office for the Gulf beaches, and a Flood Warning from the Lake Charles office for counties in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. Matching was done on county codes rather than on place names in the alert text, so none of those three is a local alert.
Sources
Lake Houston elevation from the U.S. Geological Survey gauge at site 08072000. Lake Conroe and Lake Houston percent full from the Texas Water Development Board. Forecast and alerts from the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston office, forecast updated 5:56 p.m. Central Monday. USGS gauge readings are provisional and subject to revision.
Earlier today: the Monday morning lake levels and weather reading.
