Less than 1 Inch of Rain Seen in Seminole Wednesday

Published January 10, 2013 10:10am by Sentinel Staff

As the US Dept. of Agriculture declared Gaines County and 150-plus Texas counties as primary natural disaster areas on Wednesday, steady rainfall was observed for a major portion of the Lone Star State and southeastern New Mexico.

Another powerful northern Mexico storm system, paired with tropical moisture helped bring .87 inches of rainfall to the Seminole community throughout the day on Wednesday, according to weather tabulations from Texas Tech University's Mesonet Weather Monitoring System.

Rainfall totals in West Texas and the Texas Panhandle ranged from 3.01 inches in Cayonosa to .21 inches in Canadian.

Snow accumulations were also seen in the higher elevations of the West Texas mountain and Big Bend regions, where up to 4 inches was observed in portions of Big Bend National Park.

Around the immediate area of Gaines County, the northern Permian Basin and southern South Plains, Hobbs, N.M. reported 1.42 inches of precipitation from Wednesday's passing system. TTU's weather monitoring station in Seagraves reported .89 inches of rainfall, while Denver City recorded .95 inches.

Brownfield, according to similar totals, received .99 inches of rainfall, while the Lamesa and Andrews communities received 1.18 and 1.32 inches of rainfall respectively.

The State's heaviest rainfall totals were observed in Waco, where 4.45 inches of rain fell. The southeastern community of Beaumont received over 3.6 inches of rainfall, while the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex saw precipitation ranges over 2.5 inches.

As Wednesday's system moved out of the Lone Star State, the National Weather Service, on Thursday, said the dry spell will be short-lived, as a front is expected to bring showers and thunderstorms as it approaches from the north on Saturday.

The NWS received scattered reports of street and road flooding across Texas from Wednesday's system, but no severe damage or injuries.