Drought, wildfires, and extreme weather — is this the new normal for Texas?
One popular solution to running low on water? Drill a well. In Texas alone, there are an estimated million of them. But with the extreme Texas drought stressing aquifers, while more and more people are sucking water out of them, many wells have ended up being too shallow. In its latest report on the drought […]
[View the story “Central Texas Severe Weather” on Storify]
There’s a glimmer of hope for Texans bracing for another hot and dry summer.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced today that the Dundee State Fish Hatchery in Wichita Falls, Texas, will be “suspended effective immediately” because there isn’t enough water to operate during the ongoing drought. “Although many parts of the state recently received good rains, the area west of Wichita Falls around Lakes Kemp and Diversion did […]
http://vimeo.com/10526855 Imagine a mass the size of Manhattan breaking off a mountain and falling into the ocean. It’s an event few have witnessed, but nature photographer James Balog and his crew got to see just that while filming a new documentary about the waning of glaciers across the globe. That film, ‘Chasing Ice,’ is screening […]
It’s time for another update on the Texas drought from the U.S. Drought Monitor, published every Thursday morning. And sadly, the pattern of regression we’ve seen over the past few months has taken a slight step back. The numbers: Nearly 21 percent of the state is in the worst level of drought, “exceptional.” That’s 6 […]
Remember last year’s threats of rolling blackouts? This year might not be any better. In a new report the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, predicts another summer of above-average heat. That will put strain on an electrical grid that hasn’t added much more power generation. And that means Texans can expect another summer […]
Welcome back to your weekly drought update. Every Thurdsay, the National Drought Monitor releases the latest data (collected each Tuesday), which provides a handy snapshot of where things are. And as of today, they’re pretty much in the same place they were last week. Not much improvement, but things haven’t gotten much worse, either: A […]
The drought has meant different things for different people in Texas. For many, it meant a brown lawn and fewer trips to the car wash. For others, it meant the loss of a crop, the sale of a ranch, or the disappearance of a lake. A new report gives us the opportunity to look at […]
We’re far from the finish line, but after another week with rains in parts of Texas, the record single-year drought shows continued signs of abating. While 85 percent of Texas is still in “moderate” drought, only 14 percent of the state is in the highest level of drought, “exceptional.” That’s down from 20 percent last […]
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