Huge Drought Improvement

Sunshine galore over the past couple of days, with even more to come. However, the early part of January featured plenty of clouds and a wall of water. Many locations across the Brazos Valley averaged between 3-6 inches of rain so far this month. Most coming within a 7 day period between January 7th and the 13th. Despite the heaping portions of rainfall, flooding was not a big concern. On the other hand, the ground, and vegetation were so happy to soak it all in.

In fact, there was so much rain here and across the state of Texas, that the drought situation improved tremendously. Before I show you how we ended up, here is a look at the state's drought monitor looked during last weeks report. On the right is the color coded map indicating where there is drought and where the drought is the worst. Areas in tan to brick red indicate where drought conditions were as of the January 8th report. Brick red represents the worst category of drought, "Exceptional Drought", and tan indicates a "Moderate Drought." Locations shaded in yellow are not in drought conditions, but are noted as "Abnormally Dry." From the January 8th report, here is how the state broke down.

None (no drought or dry conditions): 4.29%
Abnormally Dry (or worse): 95.71%
Moderate Drought (or worse): 83.78%
Severe Drought (or worse): 65.85%
Extreme Drought (or worse): 34.79%
Exceptional Drought (the worst category): 11.41%

From the numbers above, the state is quite dry, but nowhere near the deep drought from the summer of 2011. Again, this is before the massive rains.

Following several wet events, the map looks a lot different, and the numbers show off monumental improvements in just one week. The next image illustrates the current drought situation from the latest report that came out this morning.

When you look at the color scheme, you don't even need to see the statistics to know that the entire state has shown impressive progress in just a week. From the latest report, here are the numbers.


None (not abnormally dry or worse): 9.48%
Abnormally Dry (or worse): 90.52%
Moderate Drought (or worse): 74.01%
Severe Drought (or worse): 50.49%
Extreme Drought (or worse): 20.84%
Exceptional Drought (the worst category): 6.72%


Numbers don't lie, and even parts of the Brazos Valley are not even in drought conditions at this time.

Even though the extended forecast calls for lots of sun and barely any rainfall, its always good to get rain in Texas. I'll keep you updated.

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