At a press conference Wednesday officials with the Lower Colorado River Authority used aerial video of Lake Travis to illustrate the seriously low water level.

The video shows islands popping up in the water at multiple points due to the low lake level. LCRA officials described it as “a very serious situation” and said “every little drop counts.”

The last seven months have been some of the driest on record for the Austin area, and nearly 50 percent of the state remains in the worst kind of drought, with no end in sight.

The LCRA says some of its customers have already cut water use, but that everyone can do their part to conserve.

The agency’s chief meteorologist, Bob Rose, said it may take a hurricane to give Central Texas some of the moisture it needs to dig itself out of an extreme rain deficit.

"[We’re] looking at a pattern that will feature a little bit of rain from time to time, but overall I think that we're going to be seeing a lot of sunny days, a lot of very hot days this summer, unless something does change, moisture coming up from the Gulf or, say, an organized storm. Otherwise, I think that we're looking at a lot of really hot and mostly dry days throughout the summer," he said.

Despite last week's downpours, the Austin area is 12-16 inches below normal when it comes to rainfall.

The new drought monitor map comes out Thursday. It's not expected to show much of a change.