Rains bring brief relief to drought

MARBLE FALLS, Texas (KXAN/AP) - With the lake levels way lower than they should be, most Central Texans were ecstatic when rain started pouring down from the sky on Friday.

Lake Buchanan's water level is about 50 yards away from its preferred summer shore. People there were praying for rain and remained hopeful when the rain started Friday morning.

However, it looks like the ground is soaking up most of it right now. The runoff has yet to make it down to the lake. The lakes in Central Texas need at least three inches of steady rain to see any significant change in lake levels.

But it is not just the lake levels that are affected by rain. For the surrounding businesses, rain equals money. Obviously, when the lake levels are higher, more people are taking their boats out. Ironically, it costs shops money when it rains, as most of their customers like to sit outside.

More of South Texas is in the worst stage of drought, but recent rains have helped improve conditions elsewhere in the state, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday.

The map showed 11.5 percent of the state in exceptional drought, up from 7.1 percent last week.

All or parts of at least eight more counties southwest of San Antonio, including Maverick, Zavala, Dimmit, Duval, Jim Wells and LaSalle, moved from extreme drought to the exceptional category.

It also showed 25.1 percent of Texas in extreme drought, the second worst stage. The extreme drought stage covered 24.6 percent of Texas last week.

The rains moved parts or all of seven western Panhandle counties out of drought completely and helped extinguish wildfires in North Central Texas.

Areas of North Central Texas that were abnormally dry on last week's map now are out of drought altogether.

Ranchers welcomed the rain, though it wasn't nearly enough to revitalize thirsty pastures and rangeland.

On Thursday, burn bans remained in 161 of the state's 254 counties, most of those west of Abilene.

Drought persists over 85.1 percent of Texas, down from 93.3 percent last week. A year ago 63.8 percent of the state was in some stage of drought.

State officials are awaiting approval of drought designation for all 254 counties from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Texas Gov. Rick Perry requested the designation March 6.

No other part of the U.S. currently has exceptional drought status. The only other part of the country in extreme drought is South Florida.