This year, however, water levels have been higher than usual.

2 News has covered several stories on how Skiatook Lake has collected more water from rainfall this year.

Local News

NORMAL LAKE LEVELS: Skiatook Lake at normal level for first time in 3 years

Local News

Green Country residents enjoying Memorial Day despite flooding

Levi Brown is the assistant general manager at the Cross Timbers Marina.

He said that while water levels look good, the rainy weather has impacted business this season.

“The rain at the beginning of the season really slowed down summer,” he said. “It rained most of May, beginning in June, so it was kind of a short summer. It was kind of a short summer, I’d say.”

He’s afraid it could continue to impact Labor Day weekend.

“Usually it’s one of our busiest weekends, but with the chances of rain, it kind of steered people away,” he said. “Our boat rentals are down, and then obviously got college football started Saturday, so not as busy as we’d hoped.”

Still, the weather didn’t stop guests like Bailey Hollabaugh and his friends from going out onto the lake.

“It was a little bit rainy, but, you know, we jumped in a little bit and swam around,” he said. “Kind of just looked at the great scenery out here.”

Hollabaugh confirmed there weren’t too many people out.

“Kind of had the place to ourselves a little bit,” he said. “The water was great.”

Still, Levi Brown is holding on to hope that the season will wrap up nicely.

“Labor Day, hopefully we can finish out strong,” he said. “Hopefully it’s nice tomorrow and we get some boat rentals in there, and hopefully get a full crowd.”

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By: Craig Day

Skiatook Lake is seven feet below normal which is concerning to many as more people get out to enjoy the lake.

Did the weekend storms do any good to raise the level at the popular Green Country lake?

Donnie England has his boat out for the first time this season.

“Hoping it runs good,” England said.

He comes to Skiatook Lake often but was still surprised to see it so low.

“I knew it was going to be pretty low, but I didn’t anticipate this,” said the Sperry resident.

Many, like England, had hoped weekend storms would be enough to raise the water level significantly.

“I was disappointed; I thought it would be a little higher,” said Skiatook resident Randy Rhodes.

The rain helped, but not much, raising the water level one foot, but it’s still seven feet below normal.

“It’s pretty low,” said boater Donnie England.

“It’s a lot better when it’s full,” said Randy Rhodes.

For it to fill up, rain needs to fall in areas just northwest of the lake.

Some areas in the lake’s water watershed got one to two inches of rain, but just missed out on heavier amounts, which fell outside the lake’s watershed. It’s disappointing for folks who had hoped for a bigger impact.

Skiatook is beautiful, but the past couple of seasons have been ugly. In last years’ brutally hot and dry summer,

“Last year was just awful,” said Skiatook resident Randy Rhodes.

Low lake levels closed swim beaches and kept many visitors away. Tall Chief’s swim beach is still closed.

When the water is down, business slows down.

“Not as many people coming out and spending money in the local bait shops and what have you,” said Sperry resident Donnie England.

The Army Corps of Engineers says more runoff from weekend storms could raise the water level another half foot. But they say, what’s really needed is just more rain, in the right place.