Recent rains help Texas emerge from harsh drought conditions

[TexasTowelie]

DALLAS — Steady rainfall through the year has helped Texas emerge from the harshest drought conditions, but pockets of the state still have reservoirs alarmingly low and drinking water in short supply.

The U.S. Drought Monitor indicated Thursday that Texas is no longer contending with so-called exceptional drought, the most serious of five levels. In October 2011, 88 percent of the state was in exceptional drought.

The drought map this week shows a few regions of “severe” drought remain, such as in the Panhandle, in the area of Wichita Falls and west of Austin in Kerr and Gillespie counties. Much of the spine of Texas extending from the Panhandle south into Central Texas still has either abnormally dry conditions or moderate drought.

But a recent deluge has brought 10 inches of rain to parts of Dallas-Fort Worth over the last week, the Houston area has received more than 10 inches this week and hard rains have saturated the ground in Central Texas and elsewhere. Forecasts across much of the state call for showers in the coming days.

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/recent-rains-help-texas-emerge-from-harsh-drought-/nmGrL/

[Thinkingabout]

1. I was just remarking how so very nice it is to see the green grass and the trees full of

Leaves. I feel badly for the drought stricken areas, it sure isn't fun. We suffered greatly a fewvyears back, lost lots of trees

[Gothmog]

2. My part of the state is now way ahead of normal rainfall totals

[hobbit709]

3. The lakes are still empty. Hasn't rained worth crap in the Hill Country

[cpamomfromtexas]

4. We need new WPA, building lakes etcetera. We could have filled them up in North Texas

[Javaman]

5. We've had so much freaking rain here in Austin.

it's raining right now.