Prolonged drought is expected, which could reach extreme levels.
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Weslaco, Tx.
Severe to exceptional drought continues to hit western and southern Texas. According to the latest US Drought Monitoring, released Thursday, in Texas, the drought improved slightly.
This is in part because last weekend’s rainfall halted the spread of the drought, with little to no change in the Rio Grande Valley.
Unfortunately, in the short term, are waiting few rains. This is a trend that will likely continue until at least April. This is due to a forecast of above-average temperatures and below-average rainfall.
This week’s Texas Drought Monitor Update has forty-four percent of Texas in a drought. More than three-fifths of Texas is considered abnormally dry or worse. Those numbers have declined since last week and are certainly nowhere near our worst all-time record in October 2011. About 17 percent of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought. That number was 100 percent in the fall of 2011.
Over the past month, multiple precipitation events, including two major winter storms, provided substantial drought relief in the Concho Valley, Greater Country, and Central Texas.
The forecast of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is that the dry conditions, which have prevailed from Texas to Utah, will continue during the new season for the rest of the regions and could reach extreme or extraordinary levels.
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