Texas Officials Close Lake After Water Deemed Unsafe

People drive on I-45 toward the Houston skyline as heavy rain stops during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey August 29, 2017 in Houston, Texas. A series of thunderstorms recently brought a deluge of rain to the Houston area, flooding Lake Houston to the point that officials closed the lake.

Texas officials have closed Lake Houston after determining its flooded water levels were unsafe to navigate.

Texas has recently been struck by a wave of severe weather, including a deluge of rain that hit the state and prompted a surge of flood warnings. In Houston, the city received up to 6 inches of rain the first week of May, more than an inch above the area’s average monthly rainfall for this month.

Excessive rainfall has boosted lake and reservoir water levels around the state, including at Lake Belton, which reached 100 percent capacity after levels were severely depleted during a regional drought last year. However, there is too much water in other parts of the state, including at Lake Houston, which was closed because of its high water levels.

“Rising water levels have created an unsafe environment for Lake Houston,” the Houston Office of Emergency Management posted on X (formerly Twitter). “It is not safe to swim, kayak, boat, or do any other water activities on the lake. For your safety stay out of the lake until it is reopened.”

Last week, Lake Houston’s water levels peaked at around 48 feet before beginning to fall. As of Wednesday, the lake was at 44 feet, still nearly 2 feet above its full pool level of 42.40 feet.

National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Tim Cady told Newsweek that some parts of the Lake Houston area received more than a foot of rain in a few days.

The NWS office in Houston recently shared a post on X showing which areas received the worst of the rainfall.

“Here’s the estimated rainfall over the last week: The event started back on April 28th bringing torrential rainfall across the Pineywoods region,” NWS Houston wrote. “Additional rounds of heavy rain occurred all week long. Preliminary max rainfall was near Lake Livingston with 23.32″.”

Cady said the excessive rainfall was considered rare for the region, although it does happen from time to time.

“Sometimes we do get these flooding events in the springtime with a surge of moisture off the Gulf of Mexico,” he said. “In this case, we had several upper-level disturbances.”

Cady said multiple storms hit the region in quick succession. One of the storm fronts stalled in the area and contributed to the stormy weather.

River flooding persists, he said, and some roads in the area remain closed because of high water. More rain is on the way, with the potential for scattered thunderstorms over the next few days, although they’re not likely to have the same impact as the early May storms.

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