No Gully-Washer, but Drought Is Ended

After almost three months, it finally rained in North Texas. One minute before midnight Saturday, enough precipitation fell in a rain gauge at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to register 1/100th of an inch--the only measurable rainfall the official rain gauge had seen since June 30. Those few drops, and the showers that followed, officially ended North Texas’ record dry spell. The streak shattered the previous record of 58 days set during the Dust Bowl in 1934 and reached in again in 1950. Drought-related losses so far this year have hit $595 million, state officials said.