The recent rainfall left West Texas in much of a flood zone which rain is beneficial when it’s not in one day but what were the improvements at least to our drought?
The rainfall this week caused a lot of impacts into the Basin with widespread flooding concern but there are at least some slight positives which where the rain is beneficial for relief to our drought for West Texas.
The Observed rainfall hasn’t had much change throughout the basin since Sunday with minimal additional totals but with consideration of where the widespread higher rainfall totals were seen, this can be represented in our updated Drought Monitors where the impacts of the rain were actually beneficial.
The rain was beneficial throughout much of Texas with noticeable changes to the statewide drought in areas that depend on this information like farmers which is a much-appreciated change. Most noticeable changes were in Central Texas region with the abnormally dry conditions being dropped which made its impacts into portions in our region in Crockett County south of Ozona. This will provide great relief with also less of a fire risk which is West Texas’s main concern specifically in the Higher Elevations.
This was the previous Drought Monitor updated last week which most of the basin was under moderate drought conditions with the Western portion into the Higher Elevations under Extreme to Exceptional Drought which is a huge concern for the possible fire watch’s that is a common occurrence in the West. Little pockets of Abnormally dry conditions like Andrews and south of Crocket County.
Current droughts monitor shows after the rain has passed by significantly improved much of Central Part of the Basin going from Moderate to Abnormally Dry conditions which slightly lowers the fire risk due to the increased soil moisture and soil hardness. A shift was present more West to more Moderate drought conditions with still the Extreme and Exceptional Drought present in the Higher Elevations. The best significant change was south of Ozona in Crockett County with the drought eliminated with most of Ozona’s rain coverage being present on Sunday. Even though a lot of the rain throughout the basin caused flooding, our drought conditions took the rain as an opportunity to improve future conditions in the Basin for now when it comes to Fire Risk. Let’s just hope for our next rain maker, it will be more beneficial with less impacts but more positive results again for our West Texas Drought.