DECATUR -- At the beginning of June, after a month of record-breaking rainfall, Crystal Lake began to recede after overflowing its banks.
Gradually, over the next several months, the water level in the lake dropped and, by the middle of November, the overflow pond was nearly empty and the cave systems on the east side of the lake were visible once again.
That all changed when a day and a half of hard, steady rain fell, filling Crystal Lake back to normal levels. That was a two-day total of two inches. Then the bottom fell out.
The sky opened up on Nov. 25, beginning five days of flash flood warnings and higher then normal lakes and rivers.
The day after Thanksgiving put local emergency management on high alert as the rains fell again in the same areas. In Northwest Arkansas, rainfall was already over two inches, with some locations receiving more than four inches of rain.
That was evident when, at 10 a.m., the levels at Crystal Lake were about two inches below the spillway on the overflow pond. But by 3:30 p.m., the water was overflowing the spillway and rising.
Crystal Lake is expected to remain high for about a week before returning to its normal winter level.
General News on 12/02/2015