Posted: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:51 AM - 21,200 Readers

By: KXAN

The recent rains have helped ease the drought, but more is still needed to replenish the Central Texas reservoirs.

So far this month, more than 4 1/2 inches of rain have fallen in Austin.

December is typically the region's driest month of the year, but this December has been wetter than May, normally Austin's wettest month.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows some improvement in the Hill Country and Western Travis county. Instead of exceptional drought, the area ranks in the extreme category, the second worst.

The rain hasn’t been enough to help the water reservoirs, like Highland Lakes or the Edwards aquifer.

“What’s been interesting is people think it’s been very rainy and it has,” said Jim Spencer, KXAN chief weather forecaster. “But, it’s been light rain, an inch here, a half inch there, two inches here. The ground has been so incredibly dry that it absorbs all of this. We’re seeing very little runoff.”

Kirk Holland with the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District said the rain has set the stage for improvement but we need runoff to fill up the creeks.

"The creek flow that enters the aquifer through the stream beds is what recharges the aquifer most efficiently," said Kirk Holland, BSEACD general manager.

Currently, the district is in a Critical Stage Drought . If the situation doesn't improve, Holland says the aquifer district could hit the next stage of drought by March or April. That would restrict water use by 40 percent.

“That is an extraordinary event, because we’ve never been in an exceptional stage drought in the history of the district,” said Holland.

Improvement will take much more rain.

“If we can continue to get these storms every few days or once a week for another several months, the ground will become saturated,” said Spencer. “Then we’ll see the runoff and we’ll begin to see significant improvement in the drought. Unfortunately, that’s not what we expect to happen.”

One thing working in our favor for the time being is an unusual weather pattern during a typically drier, warmer La Nina event.

"If we didn’t know better, we’d think we’re in an El Niño pattern,” said Spencer. “We’ve just been very, very fortunate the pressure pattern that has set up across the country has resulted in a split flow in the jet stream and we’re just seeing one storm after another."