It's evening on Saturday, January 11th and it was a beautiful sunny day on Lake Texoma, perfect for fishing because it got up to 70 degrees with very little wind.

Following up my post about the low lake levels, I would like to share some historical statistics from Chief Meteorologist Steve Lanore at KXII.com who posted the following on Sept 28th and 29th 2013. Lake Texoma is even lower now - 609.25 as of the time of this posting. (Did you know there is an hour by hour graph available on the web?)

"Some other Lake Texoma statistics:
• The record high level was measured during the spring 1990 flood at 644.76'. This was 4 ¾ feet above the spillway elevation of 640.0 feet.
• The lowest level ever recorded was 599.94' on March 20, 1957.
• The last time a lower level was recorded on Lake Texoma than this year was in 1979 when a minimum of 609.96 occurred. We could be lower than that within two weeks if we don't get significant rainfall.
• A reading of 610.75' recorded in February 2004 was the previous post-1979 low level, now surpassed by 2011's drought.
• The flood control level varies throughout the year, but the "normal" level is considered 617.0 above sea level."

See Steve's article in full: http://www.kxii.com/blogs/weatherblog/Lake_Texoma_Lowest_in_at_least_17_years_129349398.html

And please see the graph below, provided by BG in Denison, who has been tracking the lake level for 24 years. His graph shows the level of Lake Texoma from January 1, 1990 until the last day of December in 2013, meaning a couple weeks ago.

In an email this week he shared the following opinions with me: "... the amount of water used for power generation is quite large, and at times has a significant impact, but is not a primary cause of low lake levels. The level has been primarily impacted by the drought and weather conditions. In addition, the lake drops even when there are no outflows through the generators or from municipal pumping. That drop is due to evaporation and at times is significant."

Well, it didn't keep a bunch of boaters and fishermen off the lake today, that's for sure. Just make sure you watch the buoys and stay in the river channel as much as possible.