Tommy Ratto, a fire fighter from the Lassen National Forest in Calif., team cleans up a hot spot after the destructive wildfire in Bastrop, Texas, Sept. 10, 2011. Officials in Texas say fire crews are making progress fighting a massive Texas wildfire but concerns about hotspots are keeping thousands of residents in the Bastrop area from returning home. (AP Photo/Eric Schlegel – POOL)

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will persist across much of Texas into early next week, providing some slight relief for areas devastated by wildfires and drought.

Moisture continuing to stream into Texas will be aided by a couple of frontal boundaries the next few days, leading to scattered shower and thunderstorm activity.

While a widespread soaking rain isn’t in the forecast, any precipitation is welcome as much of the state continues to suffer from severe to extreme drought conditions.

Wildfire Information

Along with the drought, wildfires have been threatening homes and schools the last few weeks with increased winds.

Just under two weeks ago, a wildfire near Bastrop, Texas burned more than 1,000 homes, becoming one of the most devastating wildfires in Texas history. As of Saturday morning, this fire is 80 percent contained and has burned over 1,500 homes.

Farther northeast, a wildfire in Cass County, Texas has burned nearly 41,000 acres and destroyed 66 homes southeast of the town of Linden. This fire has been upgraded to 90 percent contained.

Multiple other, relatively smaller fires continue to burn across the central and eastern parts of the state. Thankfully, many of them are greater than 75 percent contained as of Saturday morning.

In the past week, the Texas Forest Service reports that they have responded to 131 new fires which have burned nearly 20,000 acres of land.

250 of Texas’ 254 counties remain under some sort of burn ban due to the dry conditions.

Drought Update

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 96.75 percent of the state is suffering from extreme drought with 87.8 percent suffering from exceptional drought (the highest category).

With no large scale rainfall expected across the state anytime soon, only minor, localized improvements can be expected the next few days with spotty rainfall.

AccuWeather.com Long Range forecasters expect that below normal rainfall will be the rule through the remainder of the fall across the Southern Plains while temperatures remain above normal.

AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski states that “the problem is as far as Texas is concerned, once you get into September, pop-up thunderstorm activity in a normal year begins to dwindle and you really have to rely on a tropical system or some sort of frontal passage for plentiful rainfall.”

“Most areas of the region need several days of rainfall of several inches or more.” Sosnowski states.

AccuWeather.com Meteorologists expect that rainfall totals through Tuesday morning will average 1/2 to 1 inch across much of central and eastern Texas with locally higher amounts.

The problem is that most areas would need 10 to 20 times this amount to experience some real relief from the exceptionally dry conditions.

With no widespread, soaking rainfall expected through the remainder of the fall, the drought will continue to worsen over time, leading to more water restrictions and additional problems with livestock.