Drought fear fades amid golfball-size hail

Mixed in with the rain was marble- to golfball-sized hail early Saturday morning, with reports of baseball-size hail north and west of Plainview.
It hit Dimmitt about 7:20 p.m., and at 10 p.m. Friday the National Weather Service on twitter reported that Highway 86 and US 385 were closed in all directions outside of Dimmitt due to flooding.
The storm moved into Plainview about midnight Saturday, bringing with it marble- to golfball-sized hail and heavy rain.
Heaviest measured rainfall was from the Mesonet site 2 miles northeast of Dimmitt with 1.87 inches.
The Plainview Water Treatment Plant reported 0.98 inch, Plainview Herald 0.63 inch and Plainview’s Mesonet site 0.37 inch.
That along with a dryline south of the front and expected weak upper support within a modest west-southwest flow aloft should spur scattered storm development Sunday afternoon and evening.
Just 0.01 percent of Texas is in severe drought, with 1.7 percent in moderate drought, down from almost 3 percent a week ago.
Those dry areas are in northeast Texas.
Currently 13.55 percent of Texas is abnormally dry but not yet in drought.
At this point in 2016, Plainview had just 0.84 inch of moisture.