Drought update
Drought update
Drought update Tuesday evening's front helps Houston with its drought. Eric Berger · Wednesday, February 4, 2026 7:08 AM In brief: *In today's post, we review how rains on Tuesday evening helped with a drought that has persisted since late fall in our area.
*We also look ahead to two cooler nights before an exceptional weekend arrives in Houston. Simmering drought 🚫💧 *One of the quiet but persistent stories of the last several months in our region has been the development of a drought, particularly just to the south of the city.
*At one point, about a month ago, some of these areas reached 'extreme' levels of soil dryness.
*However, the precipitation during the second half of January, in association with the strongest of the Arctic fronts, helped put a dent in things. 
*Even so, as of last week, large swathes of our region were in a 'severe' drought, and most of the rest of the region remained in a 'moderate' drought.
*That's why I was pleased to see showers on Tuesday, and a line of showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday evening, over-perform expectations a little.
*During the last day or so, most of the region picked up 0.5 to 1.5 inches of rainfall, with the higher totals tending to hit the driest areas.
*It now will not rain for awhile, so yesterday's showers were a welcome thing for us. *️⃣ New drought numbers come out next Tuesday and those numbers will reflect yesterday's rain. TODAY (WEDNESDAY) 🌬 *Temperatures are about 50 degrees across the region this morning, and despite sunny skies we're only going to warm up to about 60 degrees.
*With a fairly brisk northerly wind, gusting up to 25 mph at times, it's going to feel chilly outside.
*Tonight will bring our coldest temperatures for at least the next week, with lows falling to about 40 in urban parts of the area, and upper 30s for outlying areas.
*Still, I think everyone will remain a little above freezing. THURSDAY 🌤 *This will be a another sunny day, with temperatures in the low 60s.
*However, with only light winds, it will feel 'warmer' outside.
*Lows on Thursday night will only drop into the upper 40s. FRIDAY, SATURDAY, and SUNDAY 🌞🌞🌞 The weekend looks absolutely exceptional. 🤌 *Expect highs in the low to mid 70s with plenty of sunshine 😎
*By Sunday afternoon, may we start to see the incursion of a few clouds.
*Overnight lows will generally fall to around 50 degrees with low humidity.
*Winds will generally will be light. Seriously, plan to get outdoors this weekend. 😎💯 NEXT WEEK - *Most of next week looks to be pretty much the same each day; Highs in the mid 70s and lows around 60 degrees.
*We'll probably see some partly cloudy days and slight rain chances but conditions will be mild.
*Some sort of front may arrive on Friday or Friday night, but I don't expect sharply colder weather at this point.
peppermintstick and Kittle reacted*We also look ahead to two cooler nights before an exceptional weekend arrives in Houston.
*At one point, about a month ago, some of these areas reached 'extreme' levels of soil dryness.
*However, the precipitation during the second half of January, in association with the strongest of the Arctic fronts, helped put a dent in things.
*That's why I was pleased to see showers on Tuesday, and a line of showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday evening, over-perform expectations a little.
*During the last day or so, most of the region picked up 0.5 to 1.5 inches of rainfall, with the higher totals tending to hit the driest areas.
*It now will not rain for awhile, so yesterday's showers were a welcome thing for us.
*With a fairly brisk northerly wind, gusting up to 25 mph at times, it's going to feel chilly outside.
*Tonight will bring our coldest temperatures for at least the next week, with lows falling to about 40 in urban parts of the area, and upper 30s for outlying areas.
*Still, I think everyone will remain a little above freezing.
*However, with only light winds, it will feel 'warmer' outside.
*Lows on Thursday night will only drop into the upper 40s.
*By Sunday afternoon, may we start to see the incursion of a few clouds.
*Overnight lows will generally fall to around 50 degrees with low humidity.
*Winds will generally will be light.
*We'll probably see some partly cloudy days and slight rain chances but conditions will be mild.
*Some sort of front may arrive on Friday or Friday night, but I don't expect sharply colder weather at this point.
StormChaser : Thanks for the update. We seriously need more rain. Summer will be here soon.
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