With lakes Travis and Buchanan at 42 percent capacity and little rainfall predicted in the upcoming months, Central Texas' severe drought looks as if it will linger at least through the first four months of 2013, according to Bob Rose, Lower Colorado River Authority meteorologist.

Conditions took a turn for the worse at the end of 2012 as the region received little rain during the fall, typically Texas' wettest season.

"This has been one of the driest October/November periods on record," Rose said. "With not getting very much rain this fall ... that has caused the drought conditions to grow a lot worse."

Little is expected to change through the spring, and Rose remains uncertain what the rest of 2013 will hold.

"As of now, it looks like we're going to see continued drought conditions, and we're not seeing a lot of change in this weather pattern," Rose said. "It's a very uncertain pattern. It's very unclear where we're going to be heading. We just don't know."

A study released by the National Weather Service on Dec. 6 shows drought conditions will persist or worsen through the end of March for most of Texas. Despite hopes that a wet El Nino front would move into the region this year, the state remains in a neutral weather pattern.