Rain in Texas!!

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Looking at the radar it is obvious that a large rain shield has over taken much of Texas. Much of W/C Texas has received over an inch of rain with as much as 3 inches falling in areas mainly from Brownwood south towards Brady. It appears that the rain is continuing to intensify and move eastward towards I35. This event may help the severe drought situation in Texas and S Oklahoma! And looking at the 7-day forecast for San Antonio, that region could see rain for the next several days into the weekend!. The drought that has been developing in Kansas has improved too as we were bone dry in KC and now we are 2 inches above our year to date average. it is amazing what one or two rain events can change a region from drought to flooding. But thats how it is on the Plains, it is feast or famine!

 

[Chris Lott]

It has been raining steady here since early this morning and is coming down pretty hard again. Rain is in the forecast through Saturday, with our area expected to receive 4 plus inches in that timeframe. I sure am glad to see this. My lawn needs it real bad!

 

[Steve Miller TX]

It is indeed a sweet sight to behold on radar this morning. The models are continuing the trend into the weekend. What a real blessing it is for this region suffering from a crippling drought and relentless extreme wildfire dangers. I can't remember such a radar display in recent memory for the Lone Star State. Eye candy indeed.

In fact, as I wrote in my blog, this has been the driest winter EVER on record for Texas.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090310_winterstats.html

Some interesting snippets from the website above:

"The United States experienced its fifth driest December-February period on record. Texas had its driest winter ever and the Southeast experienced its 10th driest winter."

Nationally, "The December 2008 – February 2009 average temperature was 33.49 degrees F, which is 0.53 degree F above normal."

"January-February 2009 was the driest, first two month-period in the 1895-2009 record for the contiguous United States."

For Amarillo, this winter so far is second place in the record books for the least amount of snowfall. Average is nearly 17 inches and we've had about 1.5 inches. We've also had the 6th warmest February ever.

 

[Stephen Levine]

It was also very nice to see some lightning and hear thunder this morning. The lightning was only very sporadic and intercloud; however I have been hungering for some celestial juice and this was at least a subtle beginning.

 

[Chris Lott]

Looks like some frozen precip starting to fall out west:

 

[Karla Dorman]

But Ohhhhhhhhhhh, didn't we need the rain, though! So nice to see, even though it's playing havoc with my arthritis/Fibromyalgia. Front came through about 11:00 last night, wind speeds picked up dramatically. Was in the 8os, temps dropped like a rock.

Went to bed, woke up to a bit of thunder and heavy rain on the roof. Rain, most of the day, raining now. Supposed to continue through Saturday, at least. Should make a serious dent in the dry conditions: up until this morning, hadn't really rained in nearly a month.

 

[Chris Lott]

Local news reporting 3.13" has fallen in Hillsboro and 3.49 in DFW so far, and it's not close to being over.