[Gregory Waller] Texas is known for
going through periods of extreme drought,
followed by periods of floods.
And when you're in the drought,
then it becomes critical for agriculture,
the drought declaration.
The National Weather Service precipitation products
are included by the state climatologist
in the decision-making of where to outline drought.
If you have rain events during this drought,
because drought can mean just lower-than-normal rain,
we want to make sure we're not overestimating.
And the Texas Mesonet
will allow our precipitation estimates to be more accurate,
even on the light rain events,
so that we have a better idea
of the soil moisture conditions and the drought conditions.
So, it actually adds accuracy
to the drought products as well,
by having a dense network to verify rain that has fallen.