Recent rains in the state (San Antonio, Austin: how much, estimates, areas)

[Texan2008]

How much have the recent rains in Texas over the last 3 days eased the statewide drought index? I thought I read at the end of summer that most areas in Texas were in the severe or extreme category for drought.

[ETex2]

Watch the weather on Channel 8. They've been talking about it every night.

[shoe01]

Originally Posted by Texan2008

How much have the recent rains in Texas over the last 3 days eased the statewide drought index? I thought I read at the end of summer that most areas in Texas were in the severe or extreme category for drought.

I would guess that they helped for much of the state. The most recent drought map I've seen is from early Tuesday, so it doesn't take into account the storms from late Tuesday/Wednesday.

[Two4damoney]

Had some good rain here.

[plwhit]

We need soaking rains, and those we haven't gotten.

In San Antonio we are still in Stage 2 drought restrictions.

[Lee W.]

In many areas, people didn't really get that much rain to really make a dent in the drought status. Here we only got one inch...I mean, that's nice, but we really need a foot, not an inch!
We're still in extreme drought.

[SVTRay]

We've been doing okay here locally if you factor in recent rain and snow falls but the problem is we get most of our drinking water from Lakes located 100 miles away like lake Ivie. So I don't know if those area has done well or not.

[catman]

Here in DFW, we've had more than one nice rain, especially the last one (4+ inches), but some of the lakes are still way down, and water restrictions are still in place.

[AnthonySA]

Originally Posted by Texan2008

How much have the recent rains in Texas over the last 3 days eased the statewide drought index? I thought I read at the end of summer that most areas in Texas were in the severe or extreme category for drought.

The recent rains have helped out significantly, but it's too early to gauge on the drought index. Those are updated every Tuesday and released every Thursday. Our last heavy rainfall fell Tuesday and Wednesday, way too late for the latest update. You can always check out the latest update here: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ and be sure to click on Texas to zoom in closer to the state.

That said, here's the progress that has been made so far up until this most recent rain:



We've gone from 90.87% of the state being in Extreme or Exceptional drought 3 months ago, to 62.47%. While 62.47% is still way too high, it's a significant improvement from where we were this past summer and it's a major step in the right direction. And with the rain we had this week, I expect the numbers to greatly improve again next week.



In the past 7 days, we've had a wide swath of 2+ inches of rain indicated by the yellow color; and over 5 inches of rain in areas shaded in red. The heaviest rainfall occurred just south and east of Austin, where radar rainfall estimates reach about 9.5 inches. Unfortunately, the heaviest rain did not fall where the Exceptional Drought areas still exist, but we still did get enough rain to make additional improves on future drought outlooks.

[High_Plains_Retired]

Much of the the south plains didn't get anything from the last rains across Texas. I used to be amused in New Orleans why you didn't need a submarine to get to work whenever it was 100% humidity but now I find it just as entertaining how 100% chance of rain on the Texas high plains can result in zero percent precipitation.