Storm drops nearly four inches of rain

The rainstorm that passed through much of west and central Texas late last week brought some much needed rainfall without much of the dangerous and damaging weather that both the local area and much of the state have experienced over the last month.

Thanks to the precipitation on the morning of Friday, May 31, areas in Hays County received some of the highest rainfall totals from the storm. While most of the region received an inch or even two, with 1.34 inches being reported at the San Marcos Regional Airport, some areas on the southern side of San Marcos saw three or even four inches of rain.

“For the most part, it looks like it was just some beneficial rains across a good portion of south central Texas, including Hays County,” Eric Platt, meteorologist with the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio, said. “The precipitation amounts across most of the county, it looks like most everybody, just from a cursory look at the reports that I'm seeing and also what radar is estimating, most everybody got an inch or better across the county. The highest totals that were estimated by radar, and also some of the higher totals that were measured occurred right near or just south of San Marcos and then over kind of towards Martindale and then Caldwell County.”

He said much of that area received two to three inches with a few spots that could have gotten three to four inches.

“The storms we had [Friday] morning actually began as a line of storms, probably a rut developed right around midnight or a little bit before that, between San Angelo and Abilene,” Platt said. “That activity just continued to move southeastward into south central Texas, and we had basically the remnants of that that went through for the most part. There were probably one or two storms that were in there that were severe. We had a wind gust just over 59 miles per hour in Austin. Then, we had some reports of some nickel-sized hail in the western part of Comal County, so there was a little bit of severe activity with it.” It may seem like the weather has been exceptional the last few weeks, but Platt said that is normal for this time of year.

“It's springtime in this part of the world, and May is typically one of our busiest months for severe weather, and that's what we're seeing. We see this just about every May. The areas just to our north have been a little bit busier than we have, like Central and North Texas. They've been a little bit more under the gun than us. But this is fairly typical for this area in the springtime.”

Before this storm, the San Marcos Regional Airport had reported 14.14 inches of rain so far this year.