Dallas-Fort Worth pulls out of drought

HOUSTON (AP) - The U.S. Drought Monitor has reclassified the Dallas-Fort Worth area as being not in drought for the first time since July, making it the first major metropolitan area in Texas to emerge from the most severe one-year drought in state history.

While residents in those areas will likely no longer have any water restrictions, meteorologists and climatologists warn the situation remains precarious.

More than half the state in the weekly Drought Monitor map posted online Thursday remains in severe or exceptional stages of drought, and a drier-than-normal spring or hotter-than-usual summer could quickly tip wetter areas back into drought.