SAN ANTONIO – More rain has fallen in the past few days than the rest of 2026 combined, boosting the Edwards Aquifer more than seven feet since Friday.
The numbers are a huge deal since the aquifer is the San Antonio area’s main source of drinking water. It is made up of a series of caves far beneath our feet that act like a sponge when it rains.
At impact levels, it has to rain directly on the aquifer recharge zone, which runs from Kinney County in the west to Hays County in the east.
Since Saturday, some areas of the recharge zone got up to 6 inches of rain.
Rain like this is crucial because the region has been in a consistent drought for more than four years since January 2022.
Last May, it hit its lowest levels since conservation began. That hovers around 40 feet below the average amount of water that’s supposed to be in there. That has helped trigger drought restrictions to which South Texans have become accustomed.
So while the soaking rain over the past few days has been helpful, it has not put a huge dent in the problem.
“In order to get out of drought, we would need 30 inches of rain, so when we think about how much we got over the weekend and on Monday, we’d need about 3 to 4 more of those kinds of rainfall events to truly get out of drought,” KSAT Weather Authority’s Sarah Spivey said.
While this important topic is crucial to follow, there is no need to panic about our drinking water supply.
“SAWS (San Antonio Water System) has the Edwards Aquifer as a water supply, but it also has other water sources,” Spivey said. ”So it’s not just only the Edwards Aquifer, it’s just that the Edwards Aquifer is the largest source of our drinking water in San Antonio."
To learn more about the aquifer and to watch Spivey and KSAT Weather Authority’s Justin Horne dive into the Edwards Aquifer cave system, click here to watch the KSAT Explains episode.
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