Hot Off The Press

TWDB Drought Update for January 6, 2015

i Jan 9th No Comments by

The new year has brought us the biggest weekly bump in statewide reservoir storage (nearly 500,000 acre-feet) over the past eight months with most of the bump occurring in East Texas. We also saw the amount of Texas in drought decline to 41.8 percent, a drop of 2.9 percentage points.
We continue to be under an El Niño Watch, but the Climate Prediction Center has dropped the chances of an El Niño from 65 percent to 50 to 60 percent. With the new year upon us, the chances of developing an El Niño are dwindling fast…

Some notes from Dr. Wentzel:

  • The most recent drought map released by the US Drought Monitor, for conditions as of January 6th, shows drought improvement in the last week. The areas of the state in Moderate (D1), Severe (D2), Extreme (D3), and Exceptional (D4) Drought all decreased in the last week (down 1.2, 0.7, 0.3, and 0.7 percentage points, respectively). The area of Moderate (D1) or worse drought was down almost 3 percentage points to 41.8 percent of the state.
  • Statewide conservation storage was up almost 500,000 acre-feet in the past week, or about 1.6 percentage points. Despite that impressive one week gain, current storage is about the same as this time last year and 16 percentage points below what is considered normal for this time of year.
  • As of Thursday, January 8th, conservation storage was up in 6, unchanged in 1, and down in 2 of 9 climate regions with reservoirs across the state. Storage in East Texas was up the most, climbing 4.4 percentage points, but the Trans Pecos and North Central Regions were also up at least 0.5 percentage points. The Upper Coast had the largest decline, down 0.5 percentage points. All other changes were 0.2 percentage points or less.
  • Conservation storage (as a percentage of capacity) increased in 9 of the 20 municipal reservoir systems that we track across the state, remained unchanged in 5, and decreased in 6. Beaumont-Port Arthur had the largest gain, up 7.6 percentage points, but three additional systems (Dallas, Tyler, and Nacogdoches) had gains of at least ½ a percentage point. Laredo and Corpus Christi had the largest declines, down 0.4 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively.
  • The National Weather Service’s Monthly Drought Outlook for January anticipates drought improvement and even removal for parts of Central and East Texas. However, they do expect drought to persist in the Panhandle and in much of North Central Texas. Next week, they will be releasing a Seasonal Drought Outlook for conditions through the end of April.

Download the Report

Comments