After Rainy 2007, 95% Of Texas Now In Some Stage Of Drought - Houston Chronicle

[hatrack]

LUBBOCK, Texas — Texas is parched and hot. Again. On the heels of a very wet 2007, about 95 percent of Texas is now in some stage of drought, with a sliver of two northwestern Panhandle counties garnering the worst status — exceptional — on the U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday.

In late May, only about 59 percent of Texas had some degree of drought. A year ago 99 percent of the state was drought-free. Worst hit now is the San Antonio area, which is in extreme drought and where only 3.94 inches of rain has fallen since Jan. 1. That is the driest ever for that time span, National Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy in Fort Worth said. That forced officials with the Edwards Aquifer Authority, which serves 1.7 million people, to earlier this week implement the first stage of groundwater restrictions. The 20 percent cutback on usage affects all municipal, industrial and agricultural users.

Officials with the two primary water suppliers to customers served by the aquifer — the city-owned San Antonio Water System and the Bexar Metropolitan Water District — won't yet pass the cutbacks on to customers. Each have water rights elsewhere to tap in to to avoid imposing restrictions now. The hot, dry conditions have diminished flows in many of Texas major rivers and are beginning to have a significant impact on the Hill Country and South Texas, according to a release from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

"Conditions are such that the water tables are dropping," commission spokeswoman Andrea Morrow said Thursday. All temporary-use water rights to state surface water in the Hill Country have been suspended until further notice. "The cities of Blanco in Blanco County and Kerrville in Kerr County have reached limits on how much water they can divert from rivers," Al Segovia, the commission's South Texas watermaster, said in a statement.

EDIT

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5859036.html

[babylonsister]

1. I'm in Houston and it's been raining almost daily lately,

sometimes downpours. Maybe we'll help other parts of the state and turn that drought around.

[Skink]

2. Not to mention the Hundred degree windy weather in San Antonio

Feels like Santa Anna weather here in San Antonio.

[tedoll78]

3. I so hate the weather here.

Is there a summer version of seasonal affective disorder? :P

My crops in the back yard are suffering big-time (except for those super-hardy lima bean plants). And there's now a huge crack in the soil running across the front yard.

Three more years here..