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Energy and Environment Reporting for Texas

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Drought, wildfires, and extreme weather — is this the new normal for Texas?

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May 17, 2013

While Drought Improves for Some, Many Texas Reservoirs Fall to New Lows

Statewide reservoir levels are at their lowest point ever for this time of year, according to National Weather Service Southern Region climate program manager Victor Murphy. Murphy says many reservoir levels have not changed much since November, which is when reservoirs are typically at their lowest. “Quite honestly we should be higher,” Murphy says. “We […]

May 9, 2013

Statewide Drought Worsens

More than two percent of Texas worsened to exceptional drought from last week. The U.S. Drought Monitor maps released today show more of the panhandle in the most serious drought category. Last week, just over 10 percent of the state was considered to be in exceptional drought- now it’s pushing 13 percent. The second most […]

May 3, 2013
April 25, 2013

2013 Brings Bad Spring for Some Texas Farmers

Recent rains helped pull more of the state out of drought- but 92 percent of Texas is still experiencing at least a moderate drought and in some of the state drought has worsened. The U.S. Drought Monitor maps released Thursday morning show a slight decrease from last week in the percent of the state facing […]

April 11, 2013

Hurricanes May Be Needed to Help Pull Texas Out of Drought

http://youtu.be/OWBX3QesGnQ Some parts of the state may find themselves in the strange position of actually needing hurricanes this summer. Victor Murphy, climate program manager at National Weather Service Southern Region, says tropical storm landfall could be the best hope to get rain to parts of Texas that desperately need it. Even though much of the state experienced […]

April 9, 2013

Carbon From Power Plants Down as Coal Continues to Decline

Graph by EIA Carbon emissisions from power generation are down in the U.S., to their lowest levels in nearly twenty years, and Texas is partly to thank. A new analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that “energy-related” carbon emissions have been declining every year (with the exception of 2010) since 2007. That’s […]

April 3, 2013

Outlook Calls for Texas Drought to Continue Into Summer

Thunderstorms soaked swaths of Texas yesterday and could bring more today, but Texas’ longterm weather forecast is saturated with unsettling news. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook summary of Texas weather is a grim reminder that Texas needs far more than a few strong storms. Here are some of the more interesting findings from the study: […]

March 26, 2013

A Different Kind of Climate War: Global Warming and National Security

By now you’ve probably heard about the potential for global climate change to impact the environment, the economy, even the range of vampire bats. But what about national security? That’s exactly what retired Navy Vice Admiral Lee Gunn has been talking about in Texas this week. Gunn served in the U.S. Navy for thirty-five years. […]

March 22, 2013

This Week in Drought: Time to Wake Up and Smell the Scarcity

New numbers out this week show an increasing percentage of Texas facing drought conditions, according to the US Drought Monitor Map. More than 96 percent of the state is classified as at least “abnormally dry.” That’s an 8 percent increase in the past week. State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon warned on his blog earlier this week that […]

March 12, 2013

Retired NASA Scientists Enter Climate Change Fray

A group of retirees from NASA who once put a man on the moon and call their group The Right Climate Stuff “shouldn’t be taken seriously” according to an article in The Guardian, a British newspaper. One of the most vocal of the bunch, Harold Doiron, was taunted at a debate held at the National Press […]

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