Today
Has it rained enough in Houston?
Rain soaked in today, and the ground has taken it.
Houston has had 15.7mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal October here brings 114.4mm, so that is about 14% of what the ground usually gets — and the driest October in 30 years was 6mm.
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
17 OctToday
Reached the roots
Rain that did not
one day of 14
Thirty years
Rain in Houston through a normal year
Across a normal year Houston gets about 1364.7mm of rain, most of it in September (137.4mm) and least in February (86.1mm).
A normal October in Houston has rain on 12 days. Only 8 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Houston one of the wetter places this site covers in the United States in October — 3rd of 30, against Seattle at the wet end (131.5mm) and Las Vegas at the dry end (8.4mm).
JFebMAMJJASepOND
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.