Here is where the water stands and what the forecast holds for the Lake Houston area on Sunday evening, September 13. No flood, flash flood or river flood alerts are in effect for Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties. A Heat Advisory is in effect and carries into Monday afternoon, and the details are in the alerts section below.
Lake levels at a glance
| Lake | Level | Percent full | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Houston | 42.46 feet | 100.0% | 5:30 p.m. Central, Sunday, September 13 |
| Lake Conroe | 199.89 feet | 94.8% | Daily value, September 13 |
Lake Houston
The U.S. Geological Survey gauge at Lk Houston nr Sheldon, site number 08072000, read 42.46 feet at 5:30 p.m. Central on Sunday, September 13. Over the previous 48 hours the gauge recorded 190 readings running back to 6:15 p.m. Friday, September 11, with a range of 42.41 to 42.57 feet. The lake is down 0.06 feet from the 42.52 feet it read at the same hour on Saturday, which is a slow ordinary drawdown rather than anything worth watching.
The Texas Water Development Board reported 42.51 feet in its once daily value for September 13 and lists the reservoir at 100.0 percent of its conservation capacity. The five hundredths of a foot between the two agencies is the gap you would expect between a daily average and a single evening reading taken after the lake had eased down through the afternoon.
Lake Conroe
The Texas Water Development Board reported Lake Conroe at 199.89 feet and 94.8 percent full in its daily value for September 13. That is down 0.02 feet from the 199.91 feet recorded a day earlier, and down 0.08 feet from the 199.97 feet recorded on September 9. The lake has eased down by about two hundredths of a foot every day this week, a steady and unremarkable decline.
Lake Conroe sits in Montgomery County, well upstream of this coverage area, and it belongs in a Lake Houston paper for a practical reason. San Jacinto River Authority releases from Lake Conroe flow down the West Fork of the San Jacinto River 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
Tonight: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10 p.m., then partly cloudy. Low around 77, with heat index values as high as 103. Southeast wind 0 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20 percent.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 7 a.m. High near 95, with temperatures falling to around 90 in the afternoon, and heat index values as high as 105. Southeast wind 0 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30 percent, with new rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Monday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 77 and heat index values as high as 101. South wind 0 to 10 mph. The National Weather Service does not state a precipitation percentage for this period, though it notes that new rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch are possible.
Active alerts
One alert is active for the counties this paper tracks, and it is a heat alert, not a flood alert. The National Weather Service in Houston/Galveston issued a Heat Advisory at 12:14 p.m. Sunday, September 13, warning of heat index values up to 109. The advisory ran through 6 p.m. Sunday and picks up again Monday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It covers Inland Harris County, Montgomery County and Northern Liberty County, along with a wide band of surrounding counties. Kingwood, Humble, Atascocita, Huffman, Summerwood and Fall Creek all sit inside the covered area.
Twelve alerts were active across Texas at the time of this reading, nine of them Heat Advisories and three Special Weather Statements. No flood watch, flash flood warning or river flood statement is in effect anywhere in Harris, Montgomery or Liberty counties.
Sources
Lake Houston elevation from the U.S. Geological Survey gauge 08072000. Lake Conroe and Lake Houston storage from the Texas Water Development Board. Forecast and alerts from the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston. USGS gauge readings are provisional and subject to revision.
