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An Interactive Look at the Texas Drought

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Background

Just how much damage has the record single-year drought done to Texas? For the first time, you can see an interactive map and several visualizations that show just how severe the drought has been. On our new interactive web app, ‘Dried Out: Confronting the Texas Drought,’ you can see the intensity of the worst single-year drought in Texas’ history; learn more about the hard choices the state has to make; see the drought’s progression and its impact on the state; explore the pros and cons of the policy decisions that need to be made and share your stories.

See for yourself at our new interactive webpage, Dried Out: Confronting the Texas Drought.

Latest Posts

April 12, 2012

Why Texas Still Has a Way to Go to Recover From the Drought

A new interactive map from our friends at the Texas Tribune allows you to see up-to-date levels for major lakes and reservoirs in the state. The map was created by the Tribune’s environmental reporter Kate Galbraith and data reporter Ryan Murphy. Although overall drought conditions have improved in much of the state, our water storage […]

April 11, 2012

Need More Water? Build More Buckets

Water became scarce in Texas over the last year. While it’s never been plentiful, during the record drought of 2010-2011 and extreme heat, lakes and reservoirs went dry, water systems failed, and farmers and ranchers lost billions because of lack of rain. In southeast Texas, rice farmers were cut off from water for irrigation for […]

April 6, 2012

Rejoice! This Summer Will Likely Not Be as Hot as the Last One

Photo by Daniel Reese/KUT News Anybody who lived in Texas last summer will tell you it was hot. Really, really hot. It was the hottest summer on record statewide. Numerous cities, including Austin, Houston, and Dallas saw their heat records shattered by the high temperatures. Austin, for example, experienced 90 days of heat 100 degrees […]

Voices from the Drought: Readers Respond

Our new interactive webpage on the drought has resulted in quite a few comments from readers with their own stories and thoughts about the Texas drought. Here’s a roundup of some of those responses: What’s Being Done to Plan for a Drier Future? Many readers were concerned about planning for future droughts like the one […]

April 4, 2012

Van Gogh on the Water: Visualizing Ocean Currents

Ocean currents may seem like a far away thing for Texans from the Hill Country to the High Plains, but weather patterns in the seas have an important effect on the state’s climate. The record single-year Texas drought, for instance, was mostly due to back-to-back years of La Niña, a weather pattern where the surface temperatures are […]

April 2, 2012

A New Interactive Look at the Texas Drought

Just how much damage has the record single-year drought done to Texas? For the first time, you can see an interactive map and several visualizations that show just how severe the drought has been. On our new interactive web app, ‘Dried Out: Confronting the Texas Drought,’ you can see the intensity of the worst single-year drought in Texas’ history; […]

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