Posted: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:59 AM - 6,879 Readers

By: Justin Zamudio

Autumn weather has made its presence clear in the Concho Valley.

The recent rains ranged from a few tenths of an inch to 2 inches throughout the area. San Angelo received close to an inch in many places and up to an inch on the west side of the city.

The chances of rain dwindled as the combination of the remnants of Tropical Depression Rick and an upper-level low from New Mexico and Colorado passed through the area, said Kimberly Hoeppner, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in San Angelo.

“We’re getting into a pattern where we will see more fronts move into the area,” she said. “With these fronts we usually see more rain this time of the year.”

The next chances of rain come Wednesday, when an upper-level system from the Midwest will make its way through Texas. For the time being, the Concho Valley will see a series of fronts push through, lowering daytime highs to the lower to mid 70s in the upcoming days and dropping morning lows into the upper 30s and lower 40s.

The recent rainfall wasn’t enough to increase the reservoir and lake levels in the area, said Jason Johnson, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in San Angelo.

“We didn’t see much change in the reservoir levels; the rains weren’t heavy enough,” he said. “They started out kind of light with brief periods through the evening into the night. It didn’t stick around long enough to see a rise in the area lakes.”

Johnson said the same storm system that came through the area did wonders for lakes LBJ and Travis. He said those areas in Central Texas received a significant rise because the rains fell in the right places, which was concentrated mainly upstream not too far from the watershed.

“They were suffering in that area. Our lakes need that type of rain, too,” he said.

He said O.H. Ivie Reservoir is sitting at about 44 percent of normal capacity, O.C. Fisher is at about 2 to 3 percent capacity, and Twin Buttes Reservoir is at about 24 percent capacity. He said those readings are discouraging, but he has seen the levels at a lower capacity.

Those numbers can dramatically rise “if we could have the scenario that happened in LBJ and Lake Travis,” Johnson said.

The Austin area received anywhere from 5 to 7 inches of rainfall on Wednesday in the right spots of the lakes in relation to the watersheds, he said. In the event the ground is saturated and the rain falls in the right locations, the Concho Valley can see a significant water level rise from a single storm system.

The year-to-date rainfall total from Jan. 1 for San Angelo is 23.61 inches, well above the average of 18.20 inches.

“With the El Niño weather pattern, that usually means a wetter winter season for our area,” Hoeppner said. “We should remain above (rainfall) average for the rest of the year.”

*  Story Contributed by: Justin Zamudio