Only a few lucky landscapes will benefit from isolated showers forecast to fall in Bexar County this week, but everyone should be able to enjoy the slightly cooler temperatures accompanying the rain.
Emphasis on “slightly”: temps will still be in the 90s despite the showers. Still, given the region’s run of triple-digit weather since April, even the 96-degree day forecast for Wednesday sounds like relief.
The expected rainfall from Tuesday through Friday won’t be enough to put a dent in the region’s drought conditions, said Keith White, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Neither will it appreciably reduce fire risk; a countywide burn ban is still in effect, as is a temporary ban on the sale and use of two types of fireworks: rockets with sticks and missiles with fins.
Whatever rain does fall will likely have dried up before the Fourth of July weekend.
Still, White said, “At this point, we’ll take anything we can get.”
Some of the areas that do get rainfall should expect as little as a tenth of an inch, White said, while some isolated downpours could dump up to two inches, along with gusty winds as high as 40 miles per hour.
CPS Energy alerted customers Monday that the utility was preparing for possible impacts to its above-ground infrastructure, which can be damaged by lightning, tree limbs and downed power lines. As always, stay away from downed power lines and report them to CPS Energy at 210-353-HELP (4357).
This month is on track to be the third hottest June on record, White said, with 1953 and 1998 each being about one degree warmer than 2022 so far.
That said, due to record-breaking heat in May, the three-month period from April 1 through June is shaping up to be the warmest on record. The average temperature has been 78.4 degrees, according to data from the weather agency, .2 degrees higher than the same period in 2011. That year was the driest on record in Texas, and had 57 days in a row of 100-plus-degree temperatures — just two days fewer than the record of 59 days in a row, set in 2009.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the southwestern half of Bexar County is in what’s considered “exceptional” drought status, while the northeastern half is in “extreme” drought.
On Monday, the Edwards Aquifer Authority listed the aquifer’s level at the Bexar County monitoring well at just 634.3 feet, down about 28 feet from its historical monthly average.
Meanwhile, the flow of the Frio River, west of San Antonio, has dropped to basically zero, which can lead to dangerous algae blooms where remaining water stagnates.
