It finally rained! Even so, the drought we’re in is one of the worst we’ve seen in San Antonio (since records have been kept).
We dug through some of the data to give this drought a bit of perspective as we near November. Here’s what we know so far:
Despite Monday’s rainfall, 2022 is still San Antonio’s driest year, when looking at rainfall from January 1 until now. We’ve only received 8.84? The average year-to-date rainfall for late October is near 27?.
Almost every major city in Texas has received more rainfall than us. That includes Amarillo, Lubbock, Wichita Falls, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Waco, Houston, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Del Rio (yes, even Del Rio!), and San Angelo. Midland and El Paso fall just below our mark, but not by much.
San Antonio International Airport has not seen a rain event with 2? or more since October 13, 2021. That’s more than a year ago!
Since the Edwards Aquifer Authority has been in place, the aquifer has only dropped below 630? twice — once in 1996 and then in 2014. We have come very close to dipping below 630? a couple of times this year.
Medina Lake is only 7% full and is down 77 feet. The last time it was this low was in 2014.
Bottom line: This rain was nice, but we need much, much, much more. Otherwise, San Antonio may end the year with the dubious distinction as the driest city in the state.
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