In October, the dropping water level left islands expose: Lake Travis, as seen above at the Marshall Ford Marina last week, has risen considerably since autumn. Measurements at Mansfield Dam showed the lake was up about 46 feet.

Late last summer, Central Texas faced a near emergency. Wracked by unrelenting heat and deprived of regular rainfall for two years, the reservoirs that supply water for more than a million people were drying up.

Cities large and small across Central Texas demanded that residents cut their water use, threatening fines. Schools were forced to let their playing fields go brown, cattle grew lean and congregations prayed for precipitation. Rice farmers southeast of Austin were told they would probably not get the water they wanted. By mid-September, lakes Travis and Buchanan were less than 40 percent full, and the Lower Colorado River Authority, which oversees the lakes, considered halting new water contracts.

But then, in the fall, after two years of drought, the rains came, moistening the soil, replenishing streams and, eventually, refilling the lakes. By the first of the year, most cities had rolled back drought restrictions, and the dry spell was over.