Posted: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:24 AM - 15,904 Readers

By: Star Telegram

Lake Travis, one of the Hill Country's most popular lakes, is sitting half-full, thanks to an ongoing drought rivaling the worst on state record, searing triple-digit temperatures and unusually windy conditions.

Business has dropped along with the level of the lake outside Austin, where only two of 11 public boat ramps are available.

"You're at Mother Nature's mercy." said Laura Mitchell, president of the Lake Travis Chamber of Commerce. "There's not much you can do."

The drought has taken a toll on the 109 lakes monitored statewide. A water report in June found levels in the lakes dropped by 4 percent, or more than 358 billion gallons, from late May to late June.

Three lakes -- all in West Texas -- are effectively empty. But all have been low for years. Only one reservoir -- Lake Livingston north of Houston -- was full. That's six fewer than in May, according to the Texas Water Development Board report.

The 109 lakes are an average of 73 percent full, down 13 percent from a year ago, the report indicates. Of 12 lakes in or near Tarrant County, the lowest is Lake Weatherford at 69 percent full, and the highest is Lake Grapevine at 99 percent full.

Three states -- Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas -- recorded their driest first six months on record, according to officials with the National Weather Service.

La Niña conditions -- a cooling of sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean -- are being blamed for the current drought, which officials have called the third worst since 1895.

The water level at Lake Travis on Monday was 644.58 feet, about 30 feet above its all-time low of 614.2 feet in August 1951. The high came in December 1991 at 710.4 feet.