Rainfall is just "a drop in the bucket"

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Moderate to heavy rain showers are slowly adding to rain totals. Rainfall topped three inches in some areas of the Hill Country Wednesday night. Austin has seen around 1.75 inches of rain since early Wednesday morning.

The Lower Colorado River Authority said the ground is now saturated. The excess rainfall will run off into smaller streams that feed into the lakes. Already, Lake Travis has risen .42 feet and is expected to rise around a foot eventually. Lake Buchanan should see water level rise by a half a foot with more rainfall.

Even with increase, lake levels remain well below their March normals. By the end of the month, the LCRA is expecting Lake Travis to be 18.5 feet below normal. Lake Buchanan will be around eight feet below its normal level.

The LCRA is also forecasting a continued long term dry spell claiming this rain is only "a drop in the bucket". If there is no substantial rainfall by the summer, Lake Travis could only have one usable boat ramp by July 4.

The Stiles farm in Williamson County saw 1.5 inches of rain.

"This means if we get additional rain in the next few days following this here,” said farmer Archie Abrameit. “We'll be in reasonable shape for getting a corn crop started.”

Many farmers have put off planting because of our exceptional drought status. Abrameit planted corn even though the ground was just too dry. He was banking on the rain.

"I think we'll be ok to get them germinated but beyond that we just have to see how this scenario plays out," said Abrameit.

There will have to be substantial wet weather through the summer for farmers to see a profitable crop. Long term forecasts from the Climate Prediction Center are still calling for below normal rainfall through May. While muddy fields are a good sight now, Abrameit says another dry growing season would be a huge financial drain on many farming operations.