The rain that soaked North Texas at the start of October lifted Lavon Lake for only a few days.
Daily estimates from the Texas Water Development Board put the lake at 79.1% of its conservation capacity on Friday, Oct. 23, with the water surface at 487.65 feet above sea level. On the same date, the lake was 85.2% full in 2025 and 81.7% in 2024. It was lower in 2023, at 73.3%.
A short-lived rise
Lavon spent the summer draining. It was 100% full on July 1, 95.7% on Aug. 1 and 85.6% on Sept. 1. By Sept. 29 it had fallen to 78.7%.
Then came several days of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Polo and a stalled front, which the National Integrated Drought Information System says fell across the Southern Plains from Sept. 28 through Oct. 3. Oct. 1 was the ninth-wettest day on record at DFW Airport, according to the agency's Oct. 22 update. The lake climbed to 81.1% by Oct. 4.
It has dropped almost every day since. A second storm system Oct. 13-15 brought heavy rain mainly to western and northern Texas and Oklahoma, according to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor summary, and produced only a brief uptick at Lavon on Oct. 16 before the decline resumed.
Why the lake is lagging
The Drought Monitor map released Thursday still rates all of Collin County in drought, though the worst categories have cleared. The federal drought information system's update explains part of the gap: September 2026 was the warmest September on record for Texas, about 8.2 degrees above normal, and the update says one very wet week was not enough to make up for a dry summer.
It also says long-term rainfall deficits remain across the region.
