Latest drought update and more rain in the forecast

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - The latest drought update released Thursday morning finally shows significant improvement in our drought conditions across the South Plains. Although the area is still under some category of drought, more rain is in the forecast through the next week, hopefully continuing to make a dent in current conditions.

The top image above shows a drought update a month ago with widespread extreme to exceptional drought for the KCBD viewing area. Thankfully, the rain we have seen the last few weeks have slowly chiseled away at that. The latest update only features a very slim chunk of exceptional drought for Gaines and Yoakum county, and a little less than half of the viewing area is now under extreme drought. In even better news, this update does not include the record daily rain that fell Wednesday across the South Plains. With this, we can expect more improvement in next week’s update.

Weather-wise, a much quieter afternoon today across the area. A few isolated showers/storms will taper off by sunset and most of us will be dry overnight, with lows in the 60s. Light winds from the southwest will continue to dry us out overnight and into Friday morning.

Friday will feature more sunshine and even less of a rain chance. It will be a bit warmer thanks to more sunshine with highs in the mid to upper 80s/lower 90s. Winds will be light from the south around 10 mph. There is a very slim rain chance, mainly for the eastern portion of the viewing area late Friday afternoon/evening.

Rain chances increase just a bit through the holiday weekend, but still slight chances for afternoon showers/storms. Most will stay dry. Temperatures will cool down a bit more through the weekend with highs in the lower to mid-80s. But overall, should be a nice weekend with cooler temps and plenty of sunshine. This cooler weather trend with rain chances continues into the next workweek as well.

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