Your Weekly Drought Update: The Regression Continues

Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP

Texas has one of its hottest summers on record last year, exacerbating the drought. Ranch owner Myron Calley stands next a drying pond at his ranch near Snyder

The latest drought monitor is out today (which isn’t surprising, it comes out every Thursday) and again, the numbers show improvement. The great drought that began in the fall of 2010 shows continued signs of receding, with over 18 percent of the state now completely drought-free, and a little less than ten percent of the state in the worst stage of drought, ‘exceptional.’ (To put that in perspective, at the peak of the drought in the fall of 2011, 88 percent of Texas was in that worst stage.)

As before, the eastern half of the state is faring best, while western parts of the state are still extremely dry, but improving. Earlier this week we reported on how farmers and ranchers in the rural west are still suffering, while most of the cities in Texas are now drought-free (or close to it). And even in some parts of the state that are in lighter levels of drought, lake and reservoir levels haven’t fully recovered.

You can read more at our new interactive page, Dried Out: Confronting the Texas Drought.