Rain totals and Drought and La Niña update.

7-11-24. 9:30am. This Rainfall Roundup and La Niña Update Combo is brought to you by Dietz-McLean Optical. www.dmoptical.com

It was great to see more of you getting rain again yesterday, especially over some areas to the west that are in dire need of moisture. Thanks to our weakened high pressure and lots of surface moisture, (high precipitable water values) we saw some hefty rains scattered around south-central and south Texas yesterday. Expect more scattered activity today through Saturday, although the coastal plains and south Texas will be the favored areas today. Victoria is already seeing some morning storms as I work on this post. An inverted trough over northern Mexico will boost rain odds for Friday and Saturday over south-central Texas before high pressure starts building again on Sunday and shutting our rain window.

As far as drought conditions go, we continue to see some progress, although extreme drought conditions are still a problem for parts of the Hill Country and counties along the Rio Grande. Hopefully, some of the rains that have fallen this week ease drought conditions in these areas a little by next week's report. Drought conditions have been erased for south Texas and the coastal plains.

In regard to La Niña, we are still in a neutral pattern, but should slip into La Niña by August.
From the CPC: "ENSO Alert System Status: La Niña Watch. Synopsis: ENSO-neutral is expected to continue for the next several months, with La Niña favored to emerge during August-October (70% chance) and persist into the Northern Hemisphere winter 2024-25 (79% chance during November-January).