WHAT RECENT RAINS MEAN FOR CENTRAL TEXAS
A series of thunderstorms Wednesday dumped more rain in 24 hours than Austin had seen all year. Here are five things we know:
1. IT DIDN’T HELP THE HIGHLAND LAKES MUCH
Bob Rose, meteorologist for the Lower Colorado River Authority, which manages the lakes, posted on his blog last week that “the recent rains, unfortunately, didn’t cause significant improvement to drought across the Hill Country, where monthly (rainfall) totals are still running between 1 and 2 inches below normal.”
The lion’s share of the downpours fell along or east of the Interstate 35 corridor, from San Antonio to Georgetown, and missed upstream tributaries that feed the Highland Lakes. According to the LCRA, the rain that did fall over the Highland Lakes watershed produced only a small amount of runoff.
Water elevation levels at two crucial Central Texas reservoirs, lakes Buchanan and Travis, rose only slightly after the storms. Lake Buchanan rose about 1.5 inches this week and Lake Travis is up about 3 inches since March 26, the LCRA said.
2. IT SHATTERED DAILY RAINFALL RECORDS IN AUSTIN
Wednesday now stands as the rainiest day in March since such record keeping began in Austin in the 1890s. According to the National Weather Service, Austin’s main weather station at Camp Mabry measured 3.28 inches, breaking the daily record of 3.26 inches set in 2006. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport’s 5.99 inches obliterated the March 28 record of 1.86 inches also set in 2006.
3. IT ERASED MARCH’S RAIN DEFICIT
Before Wednesday, Camp Mabry had recorded only 0.46 inch of rain in a month that normally gets 2.76 inches. As of Friday, Mabry’s March rainfall total was up to 3.74 inches — nearly an inch more than the monthly norm — making the month Austin’s 20th-wettest March. Meanwhile, Austin’s airport experienced its second-rainiest March on record, and San Antonio had its ninth-wettest March ever.
4. WE’LL HAVE TO WAIT ON DEFINITIVE DROUGHT DATA
Current Texas data from the U.S. Drought Monitor were gathered the day before the big storms, so the data still show about 74 percent of the state in some degree of drought, with Central Texas facing moderate to severe drought. We should see the rain’s effect when the data are updated this week. Until then, another indicator shows the drought is easing: Only 88 of Texas’ 254 counties have an outdoor burn ban — none of the counties is in Central Texas.
5. MORE RAIN IS COMING IN APRIL
The weather service forecast includes a 20 percent chance of rain in Austin on Monday and a 50 percent chance on Tuesday.