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A cold front triggered badly needed rain showers for drought-stricken San Antonio and the Hill Country on Thursday morning.
A map of two-day rainfall ending at 7 on Thursday morning showed Bexar County had received a quarter-of-an-inch or less rain, but as much as two or three inches fell around Kyle, just south of Austin. Showers trained over San Antonio until well after 7 a.m., so those rainfall totals should turn out higher.
Forecasters said the rain will clear out Thursday afternoon, but cooler temperatures will remain.
After a record hot summer that the weather service itself described as "Hell's front porch," daytime temperatures this weekend will be in the 70s.
The temperature just before dawn on Sunday morning will be around 57.
The cold front may have also finally ushered in fall for the Alamo City. Some long-term forecasts predict highs will remain in the 80s for most of October.
The cold front also packed some high winds that downed trees one mile northwest of McQueeney in Guadalupe County and seven miles southeast of Canyon Lake along River Road in Comal County. The roof of a home at Camp Willow, four miles southeast of New Braunfels, was also damaged.
The rain is not a drought buster for one of the worst drought-ridden regions in the entire nation. San Antonio's rainfall for the deficit for the year was more than ten inches at San Antonio's international airport, when compared to historical year-to-date rainfall averages.
Once-a-week watering with automatic sprinklers is allowed only once a week in San Antonio.
The Edwards Aquifer Authority has imposed Stage 4 restrictions on permitted water pumpers from the Aquifer.
Those pumping from the San Antonio Pool of the aquifer, such as cities or agricultural interests, are required to reducing pumping by 40% and those pumping from the Uvalde Pool, west of San Antonio, must reduce pumping by 35%.
The weather service reports a second cold front may blow in next Friday and help clear the sky for observers of the annular eclipse, but they are taking a wait-and-see approach until the calendar moves a little closer to the celestial event on Oct. 14.
