The Edwards Aquifer jumped more than 5 feet in less than 24 hours after drenching storms this weekend and is expected to continue to rise for the next day or so.

The increase means San Antonio will most likely avoid Stage 3 watering restrictions, in which watering is allowed once every other week, according to the Edwards Aquifer Authority and the San Antonio Water System.

But the respite will be temporary.

San Antonio is in the midst of its driest 12 months ever recorded, with rainfall 50 percent below normal, according to the National Weather Service, and the extended forecast calls for more of the same. The same La Niña weather pattern of high pressure that has dominated the state is starting to reform, NWS forecaster Joe Baskin said.

The NWS Climate Prediction Center estimates that the drought will persist at least through spring.

The next three months are historically among the driest, so the aquifer is not expected to rise significantly beyond its current 650.5 feet above mean sea level at the J-17 monitoring well, said Roland Ruiz of the Edwards Aquifer Authority. The J-17 is the aquifer's index well for Bexar County.

If the aquifer maintains a level of 650 feet for 30 days, the current watering restrictions will be lessened. Residents will have more hours to water on their designated day. If the level rises by an additional 10 feet, all restrictions will be lifted.

While such an increase is improbable, what is almost assured is that water use will start to go up soon.

“The peak demand season is going to be on us sooner rather than later,” Ruiz said. “It sort of snowballs on you.”

By January, farmers will start pumping heavily from the aquifer to prepare moisture-deprived fields for the year's first round of crops, he said.

That demand will serve as a prelude to the longer and hotter days of spring, when residents start to water lawns and gardens.

“It was great to have” the storms, SAWS spokeswoman Anne Hayden said. “But it was not a drought-busting rain.”