As drought conditions intensify around the state, Central Texas could use the dose of rain forecasters say is coming Friday, but it might not be much help.
The old rhyme about April showers bringing May flowers fails to take Austin's fickle spring weather into account. April isn't really even Austin's rainiest month — that's actually May, which produces, on average, up to 4.44 inches of rain.
Still, April normally sees about 2.09 inches of rainfall. But this year, with a little more than a week left in the month, Austin's main weather station at Camp Mabry has recorded only 0.46 of an inch.
The city is practically parched compared with last year, when April had 2.88 inches of rainfall. April 2019 had 7.28 inches, one of the top 10 totals ever recorded for that month at Camp Mabry, according to the National Weather Service.