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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

June 28, 2012

Life By the Drop: Between Hell and Texas

Last year, Wyman Meinzer got an unsettling feeling. Meinzer was raised on a ranch in West Texas and has weathered many dry spells, including the drought of record, when he was just a boy. But last spring, he started to notice unusual patterns. High winds for days on end. Temperatures much hotter than normal. Waterholes […]

June 27, 2012

Life By the Drop: When the Sky Ran Dry

While the drought we’re only now making real progress out of is still fresh in every Texan’s mind, there’s a whole generation in the state that can remember a time that was arguably more trying. The drought of record in the 1950s lasted for seven years. Imagine seven 2009s or 2011s back to back and […]

June 26, 2012

Life By the Drop: Where Do We Go From Here?

We’ve been looking at drought and water issues in Texas here as part of our new series, Life By the Drop, a collaboration with KUT News and Texas Monthly. Nate Blakeslee, a senior editor at the magazine, looks at some of the solutions on the table in his new piece, ‘Drawing Staws.’ In it, he […]

Life By the Drop: The Writing on the Wall

This report features contributions from Matt Largey and Emily Donahue of KUT News and Jake Silverstein of Texas Monthly. While last year was the worst in Texas’ recorded history, it was only the latest in a long string of dry spells that stretches back through Texas history, to a time before it was even Texas. Drought […]

June 25, 2012

Life By the Drop: High and Dry on the Highland Lakes

Earlier this year, walking along the dry river and lake beds of the Highland Lakes, you’d likely find yourself stepping on gravel, fish bones and fresh-water clam shells. After the lakes sat around sixty percent drained, water wells in the area also began to fail. That happened most noticeably in Spicewood Beach, where the Lower […]

Life By the Drop: Dry, the Beloved Country

Jake Silverstein of Texas Monthly contributed to this article.  It’s a disaster unlike any other. Floods, hurricanes and earthquakes enter swiftly and destroy efficiently. But a drought doesn’t herald it’s arrival. And people usually don’t pay attention to drought until the damage is already done. For most Texans, especially those living in big cities, a […]

June 22, 2012
June 21, 2012

In Drought, Texas is No Longer ‘Exceptional’ (For Now)

On Thursday, we profiled John Jacobs, the mayor of Robert Lee, who compared the onset of last year’s drought to the incremental growth a cancer. “It’s just a slow, declining death,” he said. But the positive news is that in the same way, much of the state has been creeping out of it. In fact, Texas […]

As Edwards Aquifer Drops, San Antonio Faces Severe Water Restrictions

Water levels are falling rapidly in the Edwards Aquifer in San Antonio, the primary source of water for municipal users in the region. In just two weeks, the levels have dropped 5 feet, and are projected to drop further. Victor Murphy, the Climate Program Manager for the National Weather Service Southern Region, says there’s even […]

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