Texas Drought pics

[Dave S]

borrowed this from WW in case some here don't go there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/texaspa...29641925/show/

Luckily for me, I am near the coast and do have some tidal water to ride in and one deep river left but others inland are high and dry.

[WakerideN]

link does not work?

[Dave S]

posted from here:
http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=790176
seems to have stopped working for some reason? you can scroll down and see a few pics.

[strohlde]

Ya...it's sad here. We've got 1 ramp left on Lake Travis and only another foot or so until they close it. I'll shoot some pics in the next day or two and post them up.

[skippabcool]

It is amazing how fast the water goes down.

[strohlde]

It is amazing how fast the water goes down.

Travis isn't a constant level lake, so they drain it to keep the downstream lakes full and they also sell crap tons of water to rice farmers downstream (which they may be reconsidering last I heard). But it's nearly 35 feet down from the monthly average.

[Timmy!]

None of our boating lakes here in CO are constant level either but boy, they sure don't look that bad and they aren't anywhere near that big! Feel sorry for the people down there. Hope the moisture comes in moderate amounts over the next few months so they can fill them back up!

[laserfish]

Travis is really down, at Bridgeport Lake, north of Ft. Worth, we are down 13.5 feet. Our dock is about 250 yards from the waters edge. Fortunately, we are a sand bottom on our end of the lake so it is easy to wade to the boat when anchored.

[skippabcool]

None of our boating lakes here in CO are constant level either but boy, they sure don't look that bad and they aren't anywhere near that big! Feel sorry for the people down there. Hope the moisture comes in moderate amounts over the next few months so they can fill them back up!

Pueblo is down about 25' in the last month and half. There are trees and land that was all below water. They have been releasing it to the farmers.

to think not long ago we were driving in those areas.

[wakeatx]

So one thing... Travis is about 35ft down from the average elevation for this time of year, but about 50' down from full. Brutal.

[laserfish]

It does get a bit scary when you realize what you were cruising over just a few feet ago. Suddenly, we have a tree top sticking out of the water in our slough we never knew was there. We are now cleaning out all the rocks and stumps in front of our dock. I call them prop killers. Should be nice and clean when the water comes back up.

[strohlde]

Here are some shots I took this morning of Lake Travis. They closed the last public ramp earlier this week. We're about a foot higher than the low point in 2009. I think we're currently 4th lowest on record and they're still calling for a dry fall/winter/spring.


Where I'm standing is where the water was when we moved here 4 years ago. Our ramp just goes to dirt and then drops off a 15/20ft cliff at the end.




Arm off of our cove - obviously a bit dry.




Float house...not really floating so much anymore.




Pipeline exposed....it's about 15 ft down from where I'm standing.




One of the public ramps across the way. It's been closed for a while.

[jmoore15]

Here are a few pics from Lake Granbury (just south of Ft Worth). Oh by the way this is a constant level lake!!

The first is from Sept. 2010.
The second is from August 2011 (boat is at the same dock as pic 1 and 2)
The third is from Sept. 2011

[raythompson]

Having lived in Texas for 15 years, Canyon Lake was one of the lakes I used along with the Guadalupe River, I know how badly the water flucuates. Canyon Lake would go from completed flooded to unable to launch over the course of the summer. Bounced my boat off a stump I did not know existed until the water got low.

Now living in East Tennessee we have many dam controlled lakes and rivers that are used for navigation. Because of that use the water level is kept fairly constant. Norris is sacrificed to keep Watts Bar and other downstream lakes at decent levels.

I am going to make you jealous with a picture of the water I normally use. This is on the Little Emory River about 4 miles upstream from the Kingston Steam Plant (yeh, the one that had the massive ash spill a couple of years back). The little Emory is actually a tributary to the Clinch River which merges with the Tennessee River. The water in this area being backed up by Watts Bar dam. This image was taken in early September of this year.

[jmoore15]

Yeah, seeing all that great H2O in TN is not helping (cool pic though). Here is 90 degrees close to October and we are having a hard time getting out to enjoy a long boating season because we can't find water!!