North Texas has gone nearly 40 consecutive days without rain, according to the National Weather Service. That’s based on weather conditions at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Our rainless streak is among the longest on record, the weather service says. It’s No. 6 on the list of longest rainless streaks. And Waco hasn’t seen rain since June.

There is a chance of thunderstorms today, mainly for areas west of Dallas-Fort Worth, the weather service says. Otherwise, we’ll continue to see highs in the upper 90s over the next several days.  

No rolling blackouts were needed Thursday after Texas’ biggest electrical grid issued a conservation alert. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas appealed for electricity consumers to cut their demand during Thursday afternoon peak demand hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The period passed with no loss of reliability.

In a statement Thursday, ERCOT said several generation unit outages occurred. With temperatures still high, although not at their summer peak seen earlier this week in many parts of the state, ERCOT asked customers during peak demand hours to turn thermostats up by 2 to 3 degrees, close drapes and curtains, shut off pool pumps, limit large appliance use and cook with microwave ovens or slow cookers. [KERA/Associated Press]