Looking at the hydrologic data of the Lower Colorado River Authority’s river operations center at this time of the morning, you can see that Central Texas has had precious little so far of the rain we were promised through tonight–only about a quarter of an inch at one gauge on the Llano River, the same on the San Saba, with almost a third of an inch on the Cherokee but not even a tenth of an inch so far on the Pedernales River. These are readings from automated gauges northwest of Austin in the Colorado River watershed, one of the best ways of gathering intelligence about how a rain event is shaping up. You have to choose a display at the link and "rainfall–since midnight" is the best in this situation. National Weather Service says severe storms possible as the day wears on, so may have shut down the ‘puter at the Rancho off and on. But when you’re in the midst of a bad drought, that’s not much of an annoyance.
UPDATE At 1 p.m., meteorologist Troy Kimmel says we’re under a tornado watch until 8 p.m. Then it was extended until 2 a.m. But, by midnight, 2 inches seemed to be the highest total rain for the Austin area. Not much, really, but we’ll take it.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
2 inches is a lot in some places, you know 😉
Anyway, I just was curious: Texas has, probably, a lot of sunny days. Wouldn’t it be justified for Texas to go solar? Including desalination of sea water, which Texas has in abundance?
Two inches is a lot here, too. I’m just feeling greedy because the lake is low and I want it to come back up.
Curiously enough, Texas has a lot of cloudy days. Indeed, about 70 percent of days each year in the Austin area are cloudy. There is a lot of solar around, on rooftops, mostly for one or two appliances, like hot water heaters. The stuff is just not that efficient or cheap yet, and then there are those cloudy days. Desalination will come, I’m sure, but hasn’t yet.