A chart from the U.S. Geological Survey shows how rapidly the Guadalupe flooded. Image courtesy USGS
At 2am Friday, the Guadalupe River was running at 2 feet, per federal flood gauges — and within five hours it was cresting at 36 feet as a crush of water surged downstream.
Zoom out: Rainfall totals in some areas of Central Texas topped 20 inches between Wednesday and Saturday night, as a "rain bomb" — as CBS Austin's Avery Tomasco put it, detonated over Texas.
Rainfall amounts in Austin and to the west between Wednesday night and Saturday night. The arrow points to Bertram, in Williamson County, west of Liberty Hill. The star marks Austin. Image courtesy of LCRA.
A rain bomb is not, strictly speaking, a meteorological term, but it can describe a column of wet, sinking air sometimes associated with a stalled thunderstorm.
All that rain recharged the region's drought-stricken lakes, Travis and Buchanan.
In the 48 hours between late morning Friday and late yesterday morning, Lake Travis jumped by more than 200,000 acre-feet of water. (An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.)
Image courtesy LCRA.
Stunning stat: That's far more water than the residents and businesses of Austin consume in an entire year — about 140,000 acre-feet.