Is Central Texas still in drought? Maps show change before and after last week's floods
The storms delivered a dramatic burst of moisture to a parched landscape, but even with that, much of Texas remains locked in abnormally dry conditions and drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor maps.
The flooding came on the heels of an early and intense heat wave, with triple-digit temperatures gripping parts of the state as early as mid-May — nearly two months ahead of schedule. Temperatures soared as high as 113 degrees along the Texas-Mexico border, and June ended as the seventh-hottest month on record.
While the recent rain did lead to a notable reduction in drought coverage across parts of the state, it wasn't enough to bring widespread or lasting relief. Large swaths of Texas remain in severe to exceptional drought — the three highest categories — including the Texas Hill Country, which saw the greatest devastation from last week's flash flood that came hours ahead of Fourth of July celebrations, killing at least 120 with 170 still missing.
No drought: 62.15%
Abnormally dry to exceptional drought (D0–D4): 37.85%
Moderate to exceptional drought (D1–D4): 29.50%
Severe to exceptional drought (D2–D4): 22.20%
Extreme to exceptional drought (D3–D4): 13.48%
Exceptional drought (D4): 5.75%
Drought Severity and Coverage Index (DSCI): 109
The Drought Severity and Coverage Index describes the overall intensity and geographic extent of drought conditions in a given area.
No drought: 68.71% of Texas
Abnormally dry to exceptional drought (D0–D4): 31.29%
Moderate to exceptional drought (D1–D4): 23.04%
Severe to exceptional drought (D2–D4): 16.29%
Extreme to exceptional drought (D3–D4): 10.21%
Exceptional drought (D4): 4.38%
Drought Severity and Coverage Index (DSCI): 85
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Is Central Texas still in drought? See maps after last week's floods
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
2 days ago
- USA Today
Our kids' summer break is coming to an end, but they shouldn't have one at all
We have this idyllic idea of summer, that kids should be spending their vacations lazing about outside, under a tree, watching the clouds go by. But that's just not reality in a blazing desert. Why do kids in metro Phoenix even have a summer break? They should be in school. Wait, wait. Hear me out. This might even make sense. Summer isn't what it used to be. It's hotter now, with more stretches of 110-degree-plus weather. You can play outside, but not in the heat of the day and never for long. If the sunburn doesn't get kids, the quick dehydration will. Pools aren't the cooling savior that they once were, either. Fewer houses have backyard pools nowadays. And splash pads take time off work to visit. We send kids to camp, which is a lot like school Boredom quickly takes a toll. Either your house is a wreck from whatever your kids get into – again, because you can't just send them outside, and they have to do something – or you cave and give them more screen time to keep them quiet. Double this effect when their friends come over to play. Presuming there are even friends around to play. Parents who can afford it often use this time to travel out of state. Many also send their kids from camp to camp in the summer to keep them occupied. Again, isn't that steady stream of organized activity kind of like … school? Opinion: Extreme heat is a threat to families. Trump's budget makes it harder to escape. I know. We have this idyllic idea of summer, that kids should be spending their vacations lazing about outside, under a tree, watching the clouds go by. But that's just not reality in a blazing desert like this one. Plenty of folks complain that the summer is too short, that the school year keeps starting earlier. We shouldn't be back-to-school shopping on the Fourth of July. And, hey, I get it. My kid started back this week. Others already have a week or more of school under their belts. Phoenix should move summer break to the winter Even the later starting schools are back in session by early- to mid-August, drawing plenty of head-scratching from people on the coasts, who don't start until after Labor Day. But think of it this way: Summer in metro Phoenix is like winter for everyone else. And what do kids do in winter? They go to school. People in colder climates would never dream of keeping kids out of school for two months in the middle of January. They'd get cabin fever. Well, same concept here. Why don't we take a two-week break in the summer? We could time it around the Fourth of July, sort of how most schools pause for a couple of weeks around Christmas. And then we could have our summer break in November and December, or save it for February and March, when the weather is more bearable. You know as well as I do why this won't happen I know the answer as well as you do. We keep our kids home for weeks in the heat because it would force people to rework their vacations and move camps to other times of the year. It would be tough to schedule sports, because no one in their right mind would ever play a football game, even one under Friday night lights, in July. Opinion: School cell phone bans are a distraction. The real crisis isn't in your kid's hand. It also could cost more to cool cash-strapped schools that are normally vacant in summer, among any number of other reasons not to do this. Change is hard, especially when that change would make metro Phoenix the odd one out nationally. Then again, we relish our standalone status as the only state in the continental U.S. to not observe daylight saving time. Maybe it's not that weird of an idea after all. Especially, if – you know – we did it for the kids. Joanna Allhands is columnist and digital opinions editor for the Arizona Republic, where this column originally appeared. Reach Allhands at or on X: @joannaallhands
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Blistering heat wave to grip the East: See what major cities will sizzle
ARLINGTON, Va. − The unrelenting heat wave that has baked the Midwest for days was expanding to the east on July 24 and promised temperatures approaching 100 degrees in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., by July 25. More than 130 million Americans were already under a heat warning, watch or advisory early on July 24 under a "heat dome" that has mixed a cocktail of high heat and humidity to push heat indices over 100 degrees in many areas. Heat indices measure how hot it actually feels when factoring for humidity. "A late July heat wave will continue to expand eastward during the second half of the week with sultry conditions on tap from the Lower Mississippi Valley and Midwest to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic," wrote Peter Mullinax, meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Weather Predicition Center. Mullinax said record high temperatures are "likely to be challenged" in parts of the Northeast over the next two days, and all regions affected are also likely to see some record warm minimum temperatures broken. Heat indices will generally top out somewhere from 100 to 105 from the Southern Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes on July 24 and the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic by July 25, Mullinax said. Localized heat indices could possibly approach 110. South sweating it out: See who is next in triple digits Developments: ∎ Heavy rain, flash flooding and severe weather are likely July 24 from the Central Plains and Midwest to the Great Lakes. ∎ "Relatively tranquil" weather was expected across the West, but a fire weather threat was in effect for Northern California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming because of lightning. Sheriff says officials slept as deadly flood surged in Texas The sheriff and emergency management coordinator in Kerr County, Texas, were both asleep in the predawn hours of the Fourth of July when deadly flash floods overwhelmed the Guadalupe River, Sheriff Larry Leitha told CNN. Leitha, asked if he knew whether coordinator William "Dub" Thomas was working at the time, told CNN "I'm sure he was at home asleep at that time" and added that he was also asleep. Thomas, also a deputy sheriff under Leitha, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY. The National Weather Service had begun issuing information July 3 warning that storms could cause "considerable flash and urban flash flooding." At 1:14 a.m. on July 4 the weather service upgraded the watch to a flash flood warning, and at 3:08 a.m. an alert using the term "disaster" was used. At 4:23 a.m. a flash flood emergency was declared. A half hour later reports of rooftop rescues began coming in. Leitha said the county's emergency operations center was not up and running from 1-3 a.m., when some of the worst flooding occurred. Florida facing more heavy rainfall While a stubborn high pressure system has fueled the heat dome in the Midwest, a low pressure system over the northeastern Gulf means much of Florida and portions of the northern Gulf Coast could see more heavy rainfall July 24. Parts of Florida have already seen multiple inches of rain in recent days, and a Melbourne recreation center's roof partially collapsed during a storm July 22. The National Hurricane Center said in a July 24 advisory the area of low pressure is "currently producing a broad area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms." Forecasters said the system is expected to move generally westward across the north-central and northeastern portion of the Gulf over the next day or two where some slow development is possible. By the weekend, the system is expected to move inland, ending its chances for development. − Gabe Hauari and Finch Walker What causes a heat dome? A heat dome occurs when a persistent region of high pressure traps heat over an area, according to William Gallus, professor of in meteorology with the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Iowa State University. "The heat dome can stretch over several states and linger for days to weeks, leaving the people, crops and animals below to suffer through stagnant, hot air that can feel like an oven," Gallus said in an article in The Conversation. Read more here. − Janet Loehrke See how the heat dome puts a lid on excessive temperatures in the Central and Southern US Heat dome could linger for two weeks The heat dome won't dissipate soon. Dangerous heat is expected across parts of the Central and Southeast through July, the weather service says. High temperatures will reach 100 degrees from Texas to western Tennessee almost every day for a week or two, AccuWeather said. The Northeast was given a couple days reprieve: highs in the 80s and relatively low humidity. But the dome will spread across the region July 25, driving high temperatures deep into the 90s that will feel like more than 100 degrees as the humidity builds there. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blistering heat wave to grip the East: See what big cities will sizzle Solve the daily Crossword
Boston Globe
7 days ago
- Boston Globe
Where flooding's concerned, here's one weather term you may hear a lot more about in the coming years
This doesn't mean that major flooding events haven't occurred before now. They certainly have. There are lots of examples of freshwater flooding from heavy rain in the global database over the past century and a half. But in our warmer world, these types of events are becoming more likely, and the gap between when they occur is shrinking. Think of precipitable water as a column of air above your head. This column contains all of the available moisture that can come down in the form of precipitation. When this column of air is full of moisture, the precipitable water goes up. Advertisement A day that has the potential for lots of flooding might see precipitable water at 2 or 3 inches or even more. That's a lot of water that can come down in a short amount of time, overwhelming sewer systems, streams, and even larger rivers if the rain lasts long enough. We saw just such an event Advertisement Here's an example from the Texas flooding event back around the Fourth of July, you can see the plume of moisture pushing north through the Plains. Huge amounts of moisture pushed through Texas over the Fourth of July weekend. Pivotal Notice in the chart below that precipitable water has been increasing over the past several decades. There's no reason to believe this trend is not going to continue and become more prevalent. Precipitable water in the Northeast US continues to rise due to our warming climate. University of Maine Climate Change Institute Another reason for more moisture in the air is because warmer temperatures mean more evaporation. As you evaporate more water vapor into the atmosphere, it becomes laden, and if that saturated air starts to cool, all of that moisture condenses in the form of big raindrops. If it's cold enough, precipitable water can also bring very heavy snow events. Although the climate is warming, it's still often cold in various parts of the planet. For those areas that do experience snow, record heavy snowfalls associated with the air's ability to hold more moisture are possible. Of course, eventually, as the climate continues to warm, the chance of it snowing at all decreases and what once was a snowstorm will inevitably be a future rainstorm. Precipitable water may not be as common a term as heat index or wind shear, but in many ways it's incredibly important and something I would bet you'll be hearing more about in the coming years.
