With the rain last week I saw Athens had filled up but after yesterdays rain the water level data shows half a foot low again? Boom just like that. Is this a typo or did something happen that I dont know about?

Fork didn't come up like it should have either..... Powers that be maybe letting water out in anticipation of more rain?

Some of the sensors will read off when the lake is very windy. Might be due to that. Fork came up about 1' so far and will probably settle in around half a foot low in the next day or two.

A simple problem of horizontal absorption of water in unsaturated soils is present after a rise that can lower the level some.

Typo
Athens is not a foot low and there is no "gate" to open and let water out, just an overflow drain & a high water route.
I guarantee you Athens is over full. No water issue here

I tried to call this the "Sponge Effect" once; no one bought it....

Was by there sunday afternoon....lake is definately up. You couldn't idle under the bridge right now......

I believe it had an equipment malfunction and so data were missing for a few days.

Lake Athens shows 440.69 today.

It is a remarkably stable lake. This past May with the very wet month, I recall looking at the stats and it never got to or much above 442'. And, it rarely gets down to 435', and it seems to fill up to conservation level very rapidly.

I "buy" the sponge effect, unless that is, someone thinks after the week of rain we had last week . . . that it somehow didn't fully saturate the soil all around the lake at all elevations. The sponge effect certainly wouldn't be a factor now related to wicking water out of the lake.

And, it is moot: as Nutman has said, the lake is high, not low.

Lake Athens has some water sourced to it owing to it being in the Neches River Basin, but it is the highest lake in that grouping. And, it has a decently large watershed for its size, and finally, it has some water provided to it by ground springs.

At 1799 acres, as long as the lake doesn't begin selling water to D/FW (too small for that anyway by the way), it should stay in pretty good shape.

It certainly came through the recent years of drought about as good as any lake in the area. It normally has 40" of rain out and around Athens, so 40" falls directly into the lake, then approx. 50" in a year is lost to evaporation, so it only has to make up 10" plus what is drained from the lake for local water. And, that is easily managed by the watershed and the springs.

Brad