Goodhair must have done some powerful praying last night

Weather Watch AAS 6/22/11
Central Texas gets one to four inches of rain overnight, cool temperatures on tap today


Overnight storms brought between one and three inches of rain across Central Texas, National Weather Service forecasters said this morning, giving us a brief reprieve from triple-degree heat.

Forecaster Clay Anderson said Camp Mabry recorded 2.01 inches of rain last night, while Austin-Bergstrom International Airport recorded 1.34 inches. Besides one rainy day in May, this is the most rain we’ve seen since January, Anderson said.

Northwest and southern Travis County saw as much as 2.5 inches, and areas near Burnet and Llano counties got as much as three to four inches overnight, he said.

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But don’t expect the rain to put much of a dent in the drought we’ve been experiencing, Anderson said. “I don’t know if it will make any difference at all, but everyone will be happy about it,” Anderson said. “It gives us a break from the heat today.”

AAS 6/22/11
Area man turns to Craigslist, gets rain

In the beginning, there were rain dances to the gods. Then, airplanes were used to seed clouds with chemicals.

A few months ago, Gov. Rick Perry even proclaimed three Days of Prayer for Rain.

But it didn't rain in Austin until Jerry Van Hook, a local delivery truck driver, figured out the 21st-century method of prompting the clouds to weep.

He took to the Internet and placed a want ad for rain on Craigslist.

Last Saturday, under the wanted section of the online classified ads, Van Hook wrote that he needed "Rain (Central Texas).

"Grass is brown," he explained, "and I just finished putting in a rain collection on my garage. Would like to get some rain on the grass and I want to see how this collection system works. So some rain is what I'm looking for."