We'll start with the bad news -- but not news that we didn't already anticipate by looking at the scenery across the Brazos Valley. The drought is officially back for parts of the area. While we technically have a surplus of rain for the year (4.67" as of Thursday morning) -- recent hot and dry summer months have dried out the area's vegetation and added stress cracks on the ground once again.
Counties that have been classified as in a "Moderate Drought" once again:
For more information about the recent upgrade to drought status, check the news story located on the homepage of KBTX.com or by clicking here.
Much Needed Rain in the Forecast
Just in time for the news of a returning drought -- rain chances are in the forecast and starting to slowly materialize as we type, read and speak.
A cold front is pushing into the northwest portion of the state while showers and thunderstorms are pushing to the north out of the Gulf of Mexico this morning. That front will try to get to the Brazos Valley by Friday morning -- which if it can, it'll likely stall across parts of the area keeping the rain chance alive for tomorrow.
As for today, scattered showers and a couple garden-variety thunderstorms are expected to pop up in our backyard today (50% chance). While there may be periods of sunshine, there will also be a few 30-45 minute windows of rain for folks. The key word, however, is SCATTERED meaning some of us could miss out on the rain all together and that you shouldn't expect it to rain all day once you see some of that wet stuff start falling from the sky.
Here's a look at the latest PinPoint Computer Model:
Expected Rainfall:
Should everything pan out the way the computer's are projecting them to -- which is iffy considering the fact that our front may stall just to the northwest of the Brazos Valley -- the area could see between 1/4" to 3/4" of rain, with localized pockets of 1" totals. Here's the outlook put together by NOAA:
