A girl runs to her family's car using a balloon to protect her from the rain Wednesday. (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)
It was far from biblical.
But good enough to break a 118-day dry spell.
Rain fell in parts of El Paso on Wednesday evening, bringing a welcomed end to a record-setting rainless stretch.
Officially, the long, parched days without rain ended at the official measuring site at El Paso International Airport, where only a trace of rain fell.
“It fell but not enough to measure (but) that ends the main dry spell, no rain for 118 days,” said meteorologist Jason Laney of the National Weather Service office in Santa Teresa.
There had been no precipitation since the freeze in February and the streak was the longest without rain since 109 dusty days in 2002.
Other parts of the El Paso region received more rain, including on the far north West Side, Canutillo, Las Cruces area and near Fort Hancock. The weather office in Santa Teresa recorded 0.07 inch of a rain, Laney said.
As of Wednesday, the area had only received. 0.11 inch of rain in 2011 compared with an average of about 1.69 inches of rain at this time of year.
“We haven’t ended the drought at all,” Laney said.
El Pasoans had been praying for rain for weeks. The dry spell had left the region as dry as sawdust and grasses and plants became a fire danger. [El Paso Times]
You can read more at the link, but here in Northeast El Paso where I live the rain came down pretty heavily for about 15 minutes before the storm finished passing over. It wasn’t much rain overall but hopefully it is a start to breaking this dry weather that has plaguing the region.
