The National Drought Mitigation Center released their weekly update earlier this morning. It won’t be a surprise to those in Northeast Texas that moderate drought conditions have returned. Abnormally dry conditions extend south through East Texas, Southeast Texas, the Middle Texas Coast, and the Rio Grande Valley. Drought conditions that have developed are due to a dry August and September. Most lake levels remain fairly full – a blessing from all the rains in 2015 and earlier this year. We are seeing impacts from the drought quickly develop, however. Wildfires are becoming more common due to drying surface fuels. Agricultural interests are having issues because of the recent dry patch as well.

If this were past years I would end the post here by saying no relief is in sight. Luckily that isn’t the case today. It just so happens that rain chances increase in Northeast Texas (among other areas) later tonight and during the day Friday. Rainfall accumulation projections are giving parts of Northeast Texas half an inch to one and a half inches of rain. Unfortunately I don’t think everyone up there will get rain, but hopefully we can get the coverage as high as possible. Some drought relief may occur since we’re not in a deep, long-term drought. At a minimum we may see a temporary reduction in the risk of grass fires. Rain will move out by Friday evening with above average temperatures into next week. Our next cold front should move into Texas by mid to late next week. It is too soon to tell how much, if any, additional drought relief will occur.