We're still in need of some rain here in Central Texas. Our last couple of fronts have been able to provide some measurable rainfall for parts of the area, but we have still seen an expansion of drought conditions in the latest update from the Climate Prediction Center.
Nearly the entire KVUE area is now in at least "moderate" drought, and "severe" drought has also expanded in coverage to include some of the Hill Country as well as parts of Gillespie, Blanco and Hays counties. This is in addition to "severe" drought over Fayette County that was already in place in the previous update.
Below is the drought monitor from a week ago, on March 11. At the time, Austin was only experiencing "abnormally dry" conditions. This has since been upgraded to "moderate" drought.
Areas of Mason, Llano, Burnet, Gillespie, Blanco and Hays counties that we previously in "moderate" drought have now been upgraded to "severe" drought.
Fortunately, it looks like we have some rain on the way for the first half of next week. In fact, rainfall totals have trended higher. Seven-day rainfall totals from the Weather Prediction Center now call for totals between a half-inch and an inch-and-a-half over Central Texas.
The KVUE Storm Team will continue to keep a close eye on the developing drought conditions and will provide weekly updates.
In the meantime, the extended forecast can be found below:
