AUSTIN, Texas — Memorial Day weekend is around the corner, so have lake levels in the area improved with recent rainfall?
"This peninsula here used to be completely underwater," Corbin Cornwell, co-owner of Big Tex Boat Rentals, said. "You can kind of see where the cliffs are that were not there a couple of months ago or the year before."
Cornwell spends a lot of time on Lake Travis, but not as much as he used to because of the lower lake levels.
"The landscape is changing every year," Cornwell said.
He said because his company's main storage place at Mansfield Dam is closed until water levels rise, they've had to find other places and ways to store their boats, costing money.
"Instead of spending maybe $500 a year, it's now about $10,000 a boat per year," Cornwell said.
He said, thankfully, demand hasn't slowed down and he expects Memorial Day weekend to stay busy, with most of the boaters hitting Lake Austin.
"Considering a lot of the boat companies have had to take their boats out of Lake Travis or can't launch on Lake Travis anymore, those guys are all going to be going to Lake Austin now," Cornwell said.
Big Tex will launch at Lake Travis and Lake Austin.
Looking from above at Lake Travis, you can see how much rock is exposed due to the lower water levels. Yes, the rain Central Texas has gotten in recent weeks has helped, but it hasn't been drought-busting.
Over the past 30 days, the water levels have increased by about a foot-and-a-half, but levels are still about 6 inches lower than this time last year – and 49 feet from being full.
Lake Buchanan rose 8 feet in the past 30 days, but it's still about 17 feet below full.
"So people are going to have to be careful on the water," Shannon Hamilton, executive director of Central Texas Water Coalition, said.
Hamilton said although we need more rain, this recent batch spared us some time before we hit a historic low in the Highland Lakes System.
"If no rain comes, instead of us in August talking about water rationing, you know, maybe it'll extend out to the fall," Hamilton said.
Central Texas continues to be in an extreme drought.
"I'm worried," Cornwell said. "In the long term, if Lake Travis is to ever run out of water, that is our biggest fear."
Both he and Hamilton are hoping big storms come to fill up the lakes.