Percent of normal precipitation received for April

The development of El Nino along with a persistent sub-tropical jet allowed for widespread above-average precipitation for much of April. All of that is reflected in the new drought monitor for Texas. As of April 28 over 70 percent of Texas is officially out of drought designation. The National Drought Mitigation Center officially classifies drought on their scale as D1 to D4 with D0 being abnormally dry. Compare the current drought numbers to the start of the year and its amazing to see the improvement. With all of that good news Northwest Texas is still in exceptional drought conditions. Even though they’ve receive some rain it’s going to take a lot more to get improvement in those parts. The good news is we’re heading back into a wet pattern.

6 to 10 day precipitation outlook

7 Day Rain Outlook

We dried out this week which for parts of Texas was very needed. Enjoy the relatively quiet and dry weather because we’re headed back into a stormy pattern next week. Rich moisture all the way from the Caribbean will flow north back into the southern United States. The sub-tropical jet stream will move back into our area by early next week resulting in an increased potential for thunderstorms. Being that we’ll be in early May and our climatological peak for severe weather we’ll obviously have to keep an eye on the severe weather potential each day. Fairly widespread precipitation is possible next week including the potential for heavy rain. We’ll have to see how things shape up but its looking like May will be wet and stormy for parts of Texas.