Greening Austin Daily

Drought Continues Despite Rain

25th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

The Statesman had this article today that states that last night’s rain had little effect on the drought in Texas:

Last night’s storms brought much-needed rain to Central Texas but did little to ease an ongoing drought or to raise lake levels.

The rains overnight helped replenish streams and helped ease fire concerns, but a long-term period of showers and storms will be needed to break the drought.

“If we go through another three weeks of no rain, it’ll all go away,” said Pat McDonald, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Central Texas needs as much as 13 inches of rain to reach normal rainfall levels, McDonald said.

The article also noted:

Lake Buchanan is currently about 23 feet below normal January levels and about 30 feet below its full level …[we need] 10 to 20 inches of rain … to return the lakes to normal levels.