SOURCES & OPEN DATA
A forecast you can check and cite
Read the same lake conditions on our website or through our public, read-only API. Every forecast has a calendar date; measured water levels are kept separate from predictions.
Try Lake Ray Roberts this Friday
“This Friday” resolves to the next Friday, including today if today is Friday, using Central Time. The response includes the resolved date and all available forecast dates.
When Friday is outside the available forecast window, the API says it is unavailable. It does not predict beyond the stored data.
API reference
No API key or account is required. Responses are cached briefly; reuse them instead of polling more often than every five minutes.
- GET /api/v1/lakes?q=ray%20roberts finds lake names, slugs and canonical links. Omit q for the directory.
- GET /api/v1/lakes/ray-roberts returns available forecasts and the latest water observation.
- Optional
date: a valid YYYY-MM-DD, today, tomorrow, or weekday such as friday or this-friday. Relative dates useAmerica/Chicago. - Optional
format: json (default) or markdown.
OpenAPI specification · Agent reading guide
An unknown lake returns 404, invalid parameters return 400, and an upstream failure returns 503. A known lake with no forecast for the requested date returns 200 with availability set to not_available and a list of available dates.
What the numbers mean
Weather forecasts cover up to five days including today. Temperatures are Fahrenheit; wind is the daily maximum speed in mph; precipitation is the daily total in inches. Pressure is in hPa. Lake levels are elevation in feet; flows are cubic feet per second.
Forecast update times record when our application collected/wrote the data, not when the upstream weather model ran. They are stored in UTC and displayed in Central Time. An update older than 48 hours is marked stale. If an update timestamp is missing, freshness is unknown. A missing measurement is unknown, not zero.
The API's generated_at records response assembly, not source freshness. Always use the forecast's updated_at and the water reading's measurement_date. Some reservoir capacity percentages are derived estimates. Water records older than seven calendar days are marked stale. Invalid or future record dates have unknown freshness. A water record date is not a verified sensor timestamp: USACE imports may use the collection date, and level and flow readings can have different observation times.
Fishing outlooks combine weather factors into an estimate. Solunar periods are calculated from sun and moon positions. Neither is a firsthand catch report, a guarantee of fish activity, or a boating safety assessment.
Sources and attribution
- Open-Meteo supplies weather forecasts. Texas Fishing Reports calculates weather-based fishing ratings and solunar periods.
- TWDB / Water Data for Texas, USACE, and USGS provide water observations. Use the provider named on each reading.
- Texas Parks & Wildlife supplies lake information, species and access data. Its weekly fishing reports are currently paused.
When sharing a forecast, link its citation_url, include its calendar date and update time, and name the upstream source. The lake pages contain matching dated forecast sections readable without JavaScript.
We are an independent site. No reported closures does not confirm all ramps are open; check access and fishing regulations with the managing authority before traveling.