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Scattered showers fell across parts of Bryan-College Station on Wednesday afternoon, but the rain wasn't enough to break the region's 44-day streak without measurable precipitation.
The last time enough rain fell at Easterwood Airport to wet the rain gauge was May 24, when 0.35 inches was measured, officials with the National Weather Service in Houston said.
From May 1 through July 7, the area received 1.43 inches of rain -- making it the second driest such period since 1934, when only 0.52 inches fell.
Kevin Clement knows firsthand how dangerous the drought conditions are, and if it weren't for the watchful eye of a College Station Independent School District employee, he might not have a home.
Clement works a night shift and was asleep around 1 p.m. this week when a fire broke out on his front lawn.
Sabas Tirado was mowing the lawn at nearby A&M Consolidated High School when he saw smoke.
"When I first got there, it was about two or three feet of grass on fire," Tirado said. "When I came back with a hose, it was already like 20 to 30 feet of grass on fire."
Tirado used a hose from a neighboring home to battle the flames. Clement's wife wasn't home but showed up in time to thank Tirado for his efforts.
When the Fire Department arrived, Tirado already had the fire contained.
"There was probably nothing, really, that would have stopped that fire from reaching the house," Clement said.
Bryan Fire Marshal Marc McFeron urged residents to use extreme caution in the dry conditions.
"With how dry the grass is now," he said, "just about anything, any kind of discarded material, will start a fire. Even trains going over railroad tracks can create a spark and cause a fire."
He said that from June 1 through July 5, the department responded to 20 fire calls, which is about normal.
Fireworks violations were not a major issue this year, he said, citing residents' caution as the reason.
Tom Spencer, predictive services department head with the Texas Forest Service, called the drought situation in the Brazos Valley "very critical."
"Basically, we're running at 25 percent of normal rainfall for the last six months, and we're running at about
10 percent of normal rainfall for the past month," he said.
He said a few large grass fires occurred recently that could be attributed to the drought conditions. One in Colorado County burned about 1,800 acres, and another in Walker County burned close to 700 acres.
"Exercise caution," he said. "That's extremely important right now. That's really our first line of defense, is to keep them from happening in the first place."
He said Brazos County is one of the driest areas in the state.
"You'd have to drop down into Corpus Christi or maybe Bastrop to find a drier county," he said.
Chuck Roeseler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Houston, said that chances of rain over the next few days were not high and that storm clouds over the area on Wednesday failed to yield significant rainfall.
"It looked like a pretty good storm over northern Brazos County, and as it moved south it got weaker and weaker, and by the time it got to College Station, it just fizzled out," he said.
Thursday's forecast isn't encouraging for those wishing for rain.
The high is expected to be around 105, inching close to record-setting heat. The highest recorded temperature for July 9 in Bryan-College Station is 107, set in 1917, Roeseler said.
"It'll certainly at least feel like it's 106 or 107 with the heat index," he said. "And it looks like the best chance for rain is Saturday, when there's a slight chance for showers."
