Texas drought fades with heavy rains

Texas reservoirs recover from drought

Texas waters such as Lake Travis (seen above in 2010) have seen large capacity gains in the past months compared to their reduced drought levels.

See which lakes and reservoirs have made the biggest changes. less Texas reservoirs recover from drought

Texas waters such as Lake Travis (seen above in 2010) have seen large capacity gains in the past months compared to their reduced drought levels.

See which lakes and ... more Photo: Gary Miller, Getty Images Photo: Gary Miller, Getty Images Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close Texas drought fades with heavy rains 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

Big storms washed away the Texas drought, at least for now. For the first time in three years, none of the state falls within the U.S. Drought Monitor's most severe classification.

Of course in humid Houston, where there's often too much water, drought problems seem far away, but most of the state has struggled with a slow recovery since 2011, Texas' driest year on record. Crop fields withered, cattle herds thinned and coastal fishermen netted light loads.

RELATED: Texas drought persists through rainy weather

But many spring rains have fallen lately. Parts of North Texas got more rain in the first 4.5 months of 2015 than in all of 2011. Now dozens of area reservoirs that hit troubling levels a year ago are 100 percent full.

State cilmatologist and Texas A&M University professor of atmospheric science John Nielsen-Gammon said most of the state got over twice its expected rainfall for the first 18 days of May, while a third got three times.

"This happens occasionally, usually in the spring," Nielsen-Gammon said.

Now statewide reservoirs are 77.3 percent full today, up from 65.4 percent a year ago and 58 percent in 2011.

And the makings of a strong El Niño weather pattern will likely draw the rainier-than-average weather out through coming months. The pattern is still crudely understood, and scientists know little why it happens. But they do have an idea of what happens when El Niño happens.

"I suspect El Niño has a lot to do with all these rains," Nielsen-Gammon said.

That harkens back to 2007, when a moderate El Niño turned a record Texas drought into one of the state's wettest years on record.

Four years after that, Texas faced the worst drought since the '50s.

In spite of promising water levels across the state, pockets remain parched. More than a dozen reservoirs in the Panhandle, near San Angelo and Central Texas are still at critical levels below 40 percent. Nielsen-Gammon said about 20 percent of the state remains in drought.

Austin's water supply sits 39 percent full.

Experts have warned that in drier parts of the state, even average rainfall won't be able to meet demands if population grows at its current rate. Accordingly, state lawmakers are exploring the idea of a statewide grid to move water from muggy to arid parts of the state.

RELATED: Texas cattle sees first rebound from drought

Yet the outlook looks good for the summer ahead. El Niño, a poorly understood Pacific phenomenon that brings heavy rain to the American southwest, looks poised to blossom this year. Then again, it looked the same this time last year, but it never happened.