Monday’s severe thunderstorm does not mean the drought is over, said National Weather Service Houston and Galveston forecast meteorologist Lance Wood.
Burleson and Brazos counties were issued a tornado and a flash flood warning Monday evening, but only received about two to five inches of rain, Wood said. “We think at the airport it was around two inches, which is the official station. A couple big rain events doesn’t get you out of drought; you need several days of rain over two or three weeks.”
There is a chance of rain for the rest of the week, but it is hard to tell if the Brazos County area is on its way out of the drought spell, Wood said. “There’s no magical rain amount that takes you out of drought – you have to enter a wet period. We just have to wait and see. Overall, it’s still very dry, you have some soil moisture but if you don’t have rain in the next couple days you won’t benefit at all from this.”
Though rain is probable for the next couple days, the heat will continue, Wood said. “There was a weak front that’s going settle into the area tomorrow and that may help generate some thunderstorms, but it’s not much more than a wind shift – it’s not going be like fall where the temperature drops a lot.”
Residents should be aware that unexpected weather can occur suddenly in the summer, Wood said. “In the summertime we don’t get a lot of notice – thunderstorms develop quickly so you want to be aware of warnings issued for the area.”
For weather warnings visit noaa.gov.