Today
Has it rained enough in Dallas?
Two showers have passed over in three weeks. Every one wet the leaves and was gone by lunchtime — none of it reached the roots.
Dallas has had 74.4mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal October here brings 107.7mm, so the ground is roughly where it should be for the time of year.
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
17 OctToday
Reached the roots
Rain that did not
one day of 14
Thirty years
Rain in Dallas through a normal year
Across a normal year Dallas gets about 1074.5mm of rain, most of it in May (141.1mm) and least in July (49.1mm).
A normal October in Dallas has rain on 10 days. Only 7 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Dallas one of the wetter places this site covers in the United States in October — 7th of 30, against Seattle at the wet end (131.5mm) and Las Vegas at the dry end (8.4mm).
JFMAMayJJulASOND
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means
What that means for what you grow
- Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
- Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
- Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
- Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.