The Austin area welcomes the rainfall

AUSTIN (KXAN) - For the first time in a long time, it poured in Austin.

“I didn't expect it to rain in Austin -- ever,” said Clayton Lidey “I really didn't.”

Over at City Hall, some Occupy Austin protesters took cover, while others didn't let the rain wash away their message.

A few blocks north, the normally dry shoal creek got some relief, but not much. Out west another creek prone to flash flooding, Bull Creek didn’t get much help from the above either.

But that wasn’t the case everywhere, Tuesday’s rain did do some good at the Shoal Creek Nursery in Central Austin.

“All is not loss. We are not in a dust bowl,” said master gardener Laurie Kentton.

Kentton says she’s hoping the brief downpour will get more customers back in the mood to spend some time in their garden.

“This will kind of give them that extra boost that they need to say yeah, Mother Nature is actually working in our favor and we can go ahead and start gardening again,” Kentton said.

But unfortunately as quick the rain came, it was gone. Overall according to LCRA Meteorologist Bob Rose , the area generally saw less than a half inch of the wet stuff.

“We probably need about 20 more of these types of rains to really do some significant changes in the levels of our lakes,” Rose said.

Rose says even though the rain barely put a dent in our drought, it was definitely beneficial.

“Well this rain was very beneficial as far as putting some moisture back into the ground, helping our trees and all the vegetation around here that's been so stressed, it also eased the fire danger a bit as well,” said Rose.

But sadly, Rose says our dry spell will continue. He says we can expect a few more good soaking during the winter, but not enough to turn around the driest year on record.