{"id":15290,"date":"2012-07-19T15:16:39","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T20:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=15290"},"modified":"2012-07-19T15:18:50","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T20:18:50","slug":"drought-monitor-map-update-the-week-the-rains-came-to-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/19\/drought-monitor-map-update-the-week-the-rains-came-to-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought Update: The Week the Rains Came to Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_15293\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/19\/drought-monitor-map-update-the-week-the-rains-came-to-texas\/picture-1-4\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15293\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15293\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/07\/Picture-1-300x287.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/07\/Picture-1-300x287.png 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/07\/Picture-1.png 351w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">US Drought Monitor Map<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The US Drought Monitor Map of July 19 shows marked success for Central and East Texas after just one week of strong rains.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Extra! Extra! It\u2019s the <a href=\"http:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/DM_state.htm?TX,S\">Drought Monitor Map<\/a> we\u2019ve been waiting for &#8211; the one that tallies last week\u2019s plentiful rains. As expected, much progress was made. Perhaps the most notable change on the map: almost all of Southeast Texas is in the white, meaning completely drought-free and likely to stay that way.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the rains were so strong in Central Texas that parts of the area moved down a whole drought stage in just one week. Travis County, which contains Austin, moved from Stage 2 of the drought to mostly Stage 1. (There is still a small sliver in the northwestern part of the county in Stage 2.) Williamson County, directly north of Travis County, moved from mostly Stage 3 to mostly Stage 2. Several counties west of San Antonio moved from Stage 2 to Stage 1 in just one week as well.<\/p>\n<p>As Texas gradually pries itself out of drought, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mysanantonio.com\/news\/article\/Texas-part-of-growing-drought-in-U-S-that-rivals-3711733.php\">much of the rest of the country delves deeper into it<\/a>. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/nes.ncdc.noaa.gov\/pls\/prod\/f?p=100:1:490170804843278::::P1_ARTICLE_SEARCH:351\">National Climactic Data Center<\/a>, 56 percent of the US is now facing drought conditions. This is significant because it is the largest percentage of area since the infamous drought period of the 1950s. Since much of this is taking place in America&#8217;s Corn Belt, officials are concerned about the increase in the price of grain, especially corn.<\/p>\n<p>Back in Texas, progress was real and rapid last week, but do residents of the state no longer need worry about the drought? The consensus amongst some of the state\u2019s meteorologists: the rainfall was great, but it\u2019s gonna take a lot more than a week\u2019s worth of rain to get out of a two-year long record drought.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/11\/how-climate-change-exacerbated-the-drought\/\">How Climate Change Exacerbated the Drought<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/11\/texas-biggest-cash-crop-cotton-makes-gradual-rebound\/\">Texas\u2019 Biggest Cash Crop, Cotton, Makes Gradual Rebound<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/17\/what-we-learned-about-water-in-texas-at-the-life-by-the-drop-panel\/\">What We Learned About Water in Texas at the \u2018Life By the Drop\u2019\u00a0Panel<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/18\/how-to-score-a-free-toilet-in-texas-the-water-rebate-round-up\/\">How to Score a Free Toilet in Texas: The Water Rebate Round-Up<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/06\/IMG_1236.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/life-by-the-drop\/\">Life By the Drop: A Special Report on Drought, Water and the Future of\u00a0Texas<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/04\/Screen-Shot-2012-05-02-at-1.42.38-PM.png\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/drought-app\/\">An Interactive Look at the Texas Drought<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/10\/120001038-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/la-nina\/\">What is La\u00a0Ni\u00f1a?<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/119835727-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/drought\/\">Everything You Need to Know About the Texas Drought<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/08\/WaterinTexas1-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/water-in-texas\/\">Your Guide to Water Issues In\u00a0Texas<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>As we\u2019ve reported before, the long-term outlook is cause for optimism because of the <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/06\/to-break-the-drought-hoping-for-a-perfect-storm\/\">forecasted formation of an El Ni\u00f1o in the Pacific<\/a>, which is known to bring wet conditions to the state. In fact, the Pacific Ocean has already reached the temperature threshold needed for an El Ni\u00f1o, says state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon. The only thing lacking to make it official is \u201cto see whether it lasts\u201d for several months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe effects of the El Ni\u00f1o kick in around November,\u201d says Nielsen-Gammon. In addition, he explains that September and October are \u201ctypically fairly wet months\u201d for Texas. The major concern, then, is how the precipitation situation will play out through the rest of the summer.<\/p>\n<p>Victor Murphy of the National Weather Service says that last week\u2019s rain bought us a few weeks, maybe three, for at least maintaining the drought status quo. But he adds that forecasts for the next several weeks indicate dry weather. This is likely to lead to a slight deterioration as the summer closes out.<\/p>\n<p>Bob Rose, meteorologist for the Lower Colorado River Authority, also foresees a \u201cdrier trend as we finish out July and go into August.\u201d However, he\u2019s slightly more optimistic about the chance of rain coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. In the end, he explains that there should be \u201cno huge deterioration\u201d within the next couple of weeks unless things just turn completely dry.<\/p>\n<p>Nielsen-Gammon concurs with this outlook. \u201cIt actually looks fairly promising that we might not have major deterioration between now and when El Ni\u00f1o kicks in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So just what exactly will it take to get out of this drought? It mostly has to do with the replenishing of our waterways. \u201cHydrologic impacts &#8211; water supply, reservoirs, stream flow &#8211; tend to be most sensitive to longer timescales because, for example, reservoirs hold multiple years-worth of run off,\u201d says Nielsen-Gammon. \u201cAnd so the fact that the rainfall from the current year hasn\u2019t made up for the deficit built up last year means there\u2019s still hydrologic drought present in Central Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But of course, our waterways cannot refill unless there is water falling from the sky. It may fall soon, or we might have to wait for wetter seasons.<\/p>\n<p><em>Daniel Ramirez is an intern with StateImpact Texas.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extra! Extra! It\u2019s the Drought Monitor Map we\u2019ve been waiting for &#8211; the one that tallies last week\u2019s plentiful rains. As expected, much progress was made. Perhaps the most notable change on the map: almost all of Southeast Texas is in the white, meaning completely drought-free and likely to stay that way. In addition, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":15293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[61,140,110],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}