41-day rainless streaks end with a trickle at DFW Airport

Thunderstorms flirted with Tarrant County on Wednesday, but raindrops didn’t fall on many heads.

However, two streaks of rain-free days were broken, the National Weather Service said.

You didn’t know there were two? Neither did we. Here’s what we learned:

The weather service keeps two lists on the lack of rainfall: one of consecutive days without “measurable” precipitation and one of consecutive days without “any” precipitation.

By early afternoon Wednesday, a trace of precipitation — that means a drop or two — was measured at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, the region’s official observation station.

“Yes, it rained, but it wasn’t measurable,” said Eric Martello, a senior meteorologist at the weather service’s office in Fort Worth.

That broke the much-ballyhooed streak of 41 days without “any” rain — the third-longest on record.

As the day went on, it looked as if the second streak — the one for “measurable” precipitation — would go on. To qualify as “measurable,” rain must total at least 0.01 inch at DFW.

Surprise! Shortly after 10 p.m., the amount of rain at the airport had risen to 0.05 inch.

That ended both dry streaks at 41 days, Martello said.

The 41 days without “measurable” rain does not qualify for the top 10 in the record book. (No. 10 is 44 days.)

Martello said there’s a slight chance of rain Thursday and again Friday.

We’d prefer it to be measurable.

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 7:19 PM with the headline "41-day rainless streaks end with a trickle at DFW Airport."