San Marcos River Foundation

10/06/2026

Don’t miss this weekend’s Martindale River Appreciation Event!!! There are multiple events both Saturday & Sunday, and you even have time to hit the Fall Native Plant Sale in San Marcos from 9-2 on Saturday before you go!!!

10/05/2026

Who’s ready for this year’s SMRF Riverside Social!?!!! Get your tickets today to support a great cause and kids under 18 are FREE! We’ll have kids’ activities, food, live music, paddles painted by local artists, beer/wine for the adults, face painting, custom bandana stitching and so much more! We can’t wait to see you on November 14th from 1-5!

https://donorbox.org/events/959426

Middleton Brewing | San Marcos, TX Creeksouth Farms | Central Texas TON of Brass Band Three Six General Root Cellar | San Marcos Eats

10/01/2026

More rain expected through the night along I-35, so stay weather-wise friends!

09/30/2026

Here is an updated explanation to the forecast! Long story short: be prepared for whatever may come, and remember that flash flooding can occur with as little as 2” of rain!

Wednesday morning update - No major updates to the forecast gameplan. A consensus is slowly building in the data of when/where the heaviest rain will fall, but there remains considerable uncertainty in how this will all play out.

Why? The main upper-level low responsible for generating most of these storm chances over the next few days is relatively weak... Strong enough to produce storms, but not strong enough to organize storm activity in a more predictable way. Long story short, storms will evolve chaotically, stall at random, and likely produce significant rainfall totals **somewhere** in Central Texas, but exactly where that happens will likely be impossible to know ahead of time.

Plain and simple, this is just one of those forecasts where we won't have all of the answers to your questions until it's already happening.

The potential remains for widespread 2-6" rain totals along and west of I-35, but that same area is also fair game for isolated totals of 8" or more. Where that happens, more significant flooding will occur.

While heavy rain is first possible Thursday morning into the afternoon hours, I'm looking most closely at the late Thursday to early Friday timeframe for significant flash flooding in a few spots. Please stay alert!

09/28/2026

More details about the drought we’re in, and what rain is predicted over the next 7 days… y’all stay weather wise please!

"Texas is a land of eternal drought, interrupted occasionally by biblical floods"

Case in point this week. Everything we've missed out on over the last 2.5 months gets dropped on the front doorstep this week. Buckle up, y'all!

09/28/2026

Alright guys! This is our biggest chance for rain in quite a while. Some 7 day forecasts are predicting up to 7 inches, with the heaviest rain happening Wednesday & Thursday. If you have chairs, floating docks, toys, etc down by the river- please go pick them up. We don’t want to jinx anything, but the weathermen are all agreeing right now, so it’s better to be prepared instead of having things float downstream. We’ll keep our eyes peeled & we hope you will too!

⚠️FLASH FLOOD RISK INCREASING in the coming week. THURSDAY remains as the biggest day of concern, but not the only day that flooding could occur. New level 3 out of 4 flood risk issues for the majority of Central Texas.

Setup - Slow-moving cold front, upper level low, and tropical moisture from the Gulf AND the Pacific will all line up over Central Texas. This will generate slow/training storms that will produce higher-than-usual rainfall rates.

On the plus side, we are in an extreme drought so the soil has some room to soak up some of this rain. On the other hand, drought can make the soil hydrophobic (resistant to absorbing water) when the first heavy rain sets in which can actually increase the risk for flash flooding.

Something else we will have to keep an eye on this week is the lakes. Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan are still 93% full combined and are there for a bit more sensitive to flooding/floodgate operations because there just isn't much wiggle room to store runoff.

Busy busy week of forecasting ahead. I'm back in Austin and chewing on all the data I can guzzle down. Fresh, thorough breakdown of events coming your way early Monday morning.

09/27/2026

1936 San Marcos. Looks more like a sponge compared to what it looks like today… A lot less people and concrete for sure!!!!

Beautiful San Marcos, Texas as seen from the air in 1936. The town had a population of 5500 or so then; it's currently more than 75,000. This is a huge, high resolution photo, which means you should be able to enlarge it mightily and see the details. Clearly visible are Texas State University, the San Marcos River etc ....

Super duper!

09/26/2026

The last 60 days has been brutal. We are definitely in a drought so go do that rain dance!!! We need slow, soaking rains and less flashy, but we don’t call the shots. We’ll see what next week’s weather pattern brings 🙏 ☔️ 🌲 💦

Since August 1st, only 0.87" of rain has fallen in Austin. That's our driest August+September in fifteen years. Most of Central Texas has seen less than 25% of our usual expected rainfall in that timeframe.

Sooooo you guessed it, drought is worsening as of yesterday's update. EXTREME drought is back for the first time since June in Travis, Williamson, and Bastrop counties. The Hill Country managed a good soaking of rain LAST weekend which saving y'all from drought conditions for now.

Next week's pattern shift can't get here soon enough

09/22/2026

Update: P&Z voted no to the zoning change request 6:3 last night. It will take a super-majority at council to push this through, so please be on the lookout for that meeting bc we will need folks to show up and speak against the requested zoning change. It is important to note that the church has the right to build up to 30% impervious cover as it is. The zoning change is required to add the mortuary, which is what pushes it up to 80% impervious cover, and that should not happen on this particular property. We are not at all against the church or business, and heard wonderful testimony about the positive impacts that both have to our community, but this property is not the right location for 80% impervious cover. The floodplain maps speak for themselves.

Help Needed Tonight!!!!
At 6:00 PM the Planning & Zoning Commission will consider a zoning change to allow a church and funeral home to be built along Purgatory Creek @ Hunter Road. This property is majority “Flood Way”- which has stronger currents during flood events compared to the “floodplain”!!! This zoning change would allow for up to 80% impervious cover, and require that the parking lot be situated in the back- closer to the creek!!! Please help us by making comments against this zoning change- you can sign up to make a 3 minute public comment if you arrive before 6:00pm.