I didn't know that

I've learned a couple new things recently, or more accurately, I've had things clarified that I kinda sorta knew already.  I thought I'd pass them along.

This weekend Austin got like 6 inches of rain in several hours.  While I knew that one storm could not end our years-long drought, I figured it helped significantly.  Then Matt explained to me that the rain has to fall upstream of Lake Travis in order for us to be able to capture and use it.  Oh, yeah.  That makes sense, doesn't it?

Here is how the Lower Colorado River Authority describes it on their website:

"The weekend’s heaviest rain fell in the Austin area near Barton Creek, which empties into Lady Bird Lake downstream of Lake Travis. The water is flowing down the Colorado River toward Matagorda Bay."

"The weekend rains have increased combined storage in lakes Travis and Buchanan about 17,500 acre-feet from 8 a.m. Saturday through 11 a.m. today and is continuing to rise. Lake Travis has risen about 2 feet and is expected to continue to rise slowly. Lake Buchanan has risen about a tenth of a foot. The combined storage of lakes Travis and Buchanan is now 34 percent of capacity, up from 33 percent on Saturday. "

So our water storage is up one percentage point.  Keep praying for rain, people.

Item number two you probably saw floating around on facebook yesterday; I know a lot of my friends posted it.  I knew that Columbus didn't actually "discover" America, but I had no idea just how crappy his story really is.
 
Sorry to be sort of a downer on both fronts.  But at least the grass is green, right?