Rangers at Guadalupe River State Park in Spring Branch shared “a little tranquility for you all on this beautiful Thursday morning.”
A faint trickle of water can be heard coming from the Guadalupe River inside the park in a Facebook video posted at 11 a.m. today when flow rates were 44.4 cubic feet per second (cfs) at Bergheim in eastern Kendall County and 80.3 cfs @Spring Branch in Comal County, where the river feeds directly into Canyon Lake.
“Normal” flow rates of between 250 and 350 cfs are optimal for water recreation.
The flow rate @Sattler, where water is released from Canyon Reservoir into the Lower Guadalupe River, is 61.3 cfs at 12:48 p.m. The Guadalupe @New Braunfels is flowing at a rate of 442 cfs.
Unfortunately rainfall west of Spring Branch wasn’t enough to impact lake levels in Canyon Lake, which are not affected by localized rains. Canyon Lake was 59.7% full a week ago and is 60.1% full or 887.48 feet today.
The U.S National Weather Service Austin-San Antonio said five-day estimated rainfall totals were between four to six inches in New Braunfels but only .5 to 1 inch in Kerrville.
Heavy rains did provide temporary relief for Jacob’s Well in nearby Wimberley.
“It’s been almost 2 years since we’ve seen discharge values this high,” Hays County Parks Department shared on Facebook. “Outflow is already beginning to drop off now that rainfall has subsided, however, we expect to see some sort of flow through the weekend at least. Come see for yourself!”
To track realtime flow rates on the Guadalupe River click here to see a page managed by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Comal County Engineer’s Office maintains this page, which exactly predicts how this week’s heavy rains will impact future flow rates.
“These are the tools you can use to start forecasting what might be happening on the river,” Hornseth told Coumal County Commissioners in late 2023. “And when we do have an extreme event, which we will someday, these are really handy tools to try to see exactly how crazy things might get in the future because these predictions are usually pretty good.”
