Terrence Henry reports on energy and the environment for StateImpact Texas. His radio, print and television work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, NPR, The Texas Tribune, The History Channel and other outlets.
He has previously worked at The Washington Post and The Atlantic. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from Brigham Young University.
Texas had decent rain this summer, but its high temperatures aren't a good sign.
As a cold front made its way to Texas this weekend, you may have noticed a shift in habits. AC-addled couch-surfers took to their bikes for the first time in weeks, joggers weren’t relegated to nocturnal runs, and al fresco seating at bars and cafes was suddenly at a premium. Summer is over for Texas, so perhaps it’s time to take stock of how our season fared.
If you were to give the summer a grade, you’d probably have to do it in two subjects: heat and precipitation. For the latter, we’d give it a solid ‘B.’ Victor Murphy, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, tells StateImpact Texas that the state had 6.71 inches of rainfall this summer, while the average over the last hundred years is 7.59 inches. “So, as a whole, we were 0.88″ below normal, or about 12% less than normal,” Murphy says in an email. “This comes on the heels of the driest summer ever on record in 2011.” That summer the state only had 2.48 inches of rain.
Cotton fields in bloom this year in Wharton County in Southeast Texas.
While the major metropolitan areas of the state have come back quite a ways from last year’s record drought, the same isn’t true for many farmers and ranchers in the rural parts of Texas. The latest drought monitor map shows that West Texas and the panhandle are still suffering, with much of the region in drought conditions ranging from ‘severe’ to ‘exceptional.’
Rangeland and pastures in the Panhandle are in “very poor to poor condition,” according to the latest crop and weather report from the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service. It’s not all bad news. This year’s cotton crop is doing well in parts of the state like the Gulf Coast, and worse in others, like the Coastal Bend area. Other areas of the state are seeing good yields with alfafa. Winter wheat is being planted. Suffice to say, Texas’ nearly $8 billion in agricultural losses last year won’t be repeated in 2012.
One of the main culprits of last year’s devastating drought was the La Nina weather pattern. That’s when warmer-than-normal surface ocean temperatures cause higher temperatures and less precipitation in Texas. After back-to-back La Nina’s, Texas was literally left in the dust last year.
But the counterpart to La Nina, El Nino, is on its way. And typically that means cooler temperatures and higher precipitation. Continue Reading →
Join us tonight for a discussion about wildfires in Texas.
We’re hoping you can join us tonight at our new studios for a panel and discussion of wildfires in Texas. We’ll be listening to and talking about our recent documentary with KUT News, Forged in Flames: An Oral History of the Labor Day Wildfires.
Our own reporter Mose Buchele will be on a panel with KUT News Director Emily Donahue and Erin Purdy of The University of Texas at Austin’s Briscoe Center for American History. You’ll get to participate in a discussion about wildfires in Texas and learn more about the Forged in Flames documentary and oral history project.
When: Monday, Sept. 10, 2012, 6–7 p.m.
Where:Â The KUT Public Media Studios, 300 W. Dean Keeton St. (northeast corner of Guadalupe and Dean Keeton streets), Austin
A boat overturned by Hurricane Isaac floats in lower Plaquemines Parish on September 2, 2012 in Buras, Louisiana.
Tar balls and oil from the BP spill in 2010 are washing up again on the shores of Louisiana. Hurricane Issac, which stirred up intense winds and dumped over a foot of rain in some parts of the state, has also disturbed some deposits that hadn’t been cleaned up after spill.
During the last week, oil from that spill has started making a second appearance, causing the state of Louisiana to close a 12-mile section of coastline southeast of New Orleans. Tests have confirmed that the oil washing ashore is indeed the same oil that leaked during the BP oil spill.
The Times-Picayunne has more on what’s behind the resurgence: Continue Reading →
Low humidity and high winds could lead to "critical" fire conditions this weekend.
If you live in Central Texas, particularly in exurbs abutting woodlands and greenbelts, you’ll want to keep a keen eye out this weekend for wildfires.
The National Weather Service is forecasting “gust” winds beginning tomorrow morning and increasing in the afternoon, leading to possible “critical fire weather conditions” for a few hours Saturday afternoon. The service says humidity will drop while winds will pick up, gusting up to 35 miles per hour, creating “potentially volatile” conditions. (Update: the service has now issued a red flag warning.)
The good news is the danger will be relatively brief. Come Saturday evening, the forecasters say that the winds will die down and humidity will recover. While there will be “elevated” fire conditions Sunday and Monday during the afternoons and evening, they aren’t expected to be as severe as Saturday.
Here’s a full list of the counties affected, and a map of burn bans in the area: Continue Reading →
The Gwin family walks through the aftermath of the Labor Day fires.
If you’re in Austin Monday evening, please join us at our new studios for a special listening session and panel discussion of Forged in Flames: An Oral History of the Labor Day Wildfires, a special project on the 2011 fires by KUT News and StateImpact Texas.
We’ll be listening to segments of the Forged in Flames documentary on the fires, with a panel discussion and Q&A with KUT News Director Emily Donahue, StateImpact Texas reporter Mose Buchele and Erin Purdy of The University of Texas at Austin’s Briscoe Center for American History. You’ll get to hear how the documentary and oral history project were produced and ask your questions about the fires and the project.
When:Â Monday, Sept. 10, 2012, 6-7 p.m.
Where: The KUT Public Media Studios, 300 W. Dean Keeton St. (northeast corner of Guadalupe and Dean Keeton streets)
At least forty people have died from the West Nile virus in Texas. The neuroinvasive strain of the virus has been confirmed in nearly 500 cases in the state, more than any other year before. Naturally this brings up a lot of questions: Is it always fatal? Where in Texas is it a problem? How did it get here in the first place?
Where West Nile Has Hit Texas
Let’s start with where West Nile is in the state. As you can see in the map to the right by Texas Tribune, the virus is mostly in North and Central Texas. (Click here for an interactive version.) But new numbers reported by KUT News today show that the problem is becoming worse in Central Texas — mostly the area around Austin — while it’s improving in Dallas County, which has likely already hit its peak number of cases.
Here’s how Labor Day weekend 2011 started for Matt Lara, a musician living in Spicewood, some forty miles outside of Austin.
“I was going to town to meet some friends for a beer – just a good Sunday, a day off – and walked outside, and the light in the yard, the sunlight, was just really strange; it was just too – there was something too orange about it, like all the blue had been cut out of it, and I thought, maybe I’ve been staring at a computer screen too long or something, my eyes are messed up.”
It started as the perfect fall weekend: Breezy, sunny skies, cool temperatures.
Then it spawned one of the worst disasters in Central Texas history. More than two thousand homes destroyed, landmarks burned, whole habitats changed forever. The Labor Day Wildfires of 2011 took some lives, uprooted others and changed Central Texas history: from the way emergency responders plan for fires to building codes and water usage.
It also brought communities together like never before. These are some of the voices of the fires: A vast oral history project by KUT News to collect and document the fires that swept through Central Texas that tragic weekend of September 2011.
You can listen to the one-hour documentary on KUT 90.5 FM in Austin today, Sept. 4, at 3 p.m., and Wednesday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. You can also download the documentary above and transfer it to your phone or iPod (right-click on “Download” and choose “Save As”).
2011 wildfire evacuations sometimes happened too fast for residents to collect their or their neighbors' pets.
Nathan Bernier of KUT News reported this article as part of our special series on the 2011 Labor Day Wildfires with KUT News, Forged in Flames.Â
Today at 3 p.m., KUT 90.5 FM in Austin will air a special one-hour documentary telling the story of the fires. It will air again Wednesday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. You can listen on air and online, and download the documentary here at StateImpact Texas.
Exactly one year ago today, large wildfires broke out in Bastrop, Steiner Ranch, Spicewood, Pflugerville and other communities in Central Texas. Hundreds of people were forced from their homes and grabbed whatever they could in the few minutes they had. But that often meant that pets were left behind to fend for themselves.
As the fires rapidly approached, families were told they had to evacuate. Residents like Michelle Bielinkski from Steiner Ranch recalls getting her entire family into their car, then hearing noises from her neighbor’s home.
“Because they were out of town but we had know the dogs were there because we could hear them barking,” she remembers. “That’s when the policeman stopped us from going back over to their house. Because at that point we were going to break the window to see if we can get them out.” Continue Reading →
About StateImpact
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
