Posted: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:34 AM - 11,511 Readers
By: Asher Price
photography by Alberto Martínez
Scarcely a year after one drought ended, another has gripped Central Texas.
Parts or all of Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties are in a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federally funded service that tracks conditions across the country.
Less than an inch of rain fell on Austin between Oct. 1 and Friday, a period that normally gets more than 8 inches. That period is the second-driest on record at Camp Mabry and third-driest at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
The last heavy rains were in early September.
"It had been a very good year for rainfall, but since October, we haven't had anything," National Weather Service meteorologist Pat McDonald said.
Average total rainfall through this time of year at the airport is 33.53 inches. This year, it has been 27.62 inches.
Camp Mabry has a slightly different story: There, the normal total is 32.49 inches, but 36.97 inches has fallen.
McDonald explained that some major storms hit Mabry, but not Bergstrom.
Dryness appears to have struck much of Texas. Eighty-five percent of the state is in at least mild drought. This time last year, only 28 percent of the state was experiencing drought.
At the time, one of the worst dry spells in Central Texas history had just broken, with heavy rains pounding the area in late September and October 2009. Lakes were eventually replenished, and plants sprang back to life.
But the respite has been short-lived.
"I see 2-inch cracks in our clay soils," said Skip Richter, the director of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service office in Travis County. "It sneaks up on you because it's so cool."
In drought parlance, severe is not as bad as extreme or exceptional drought. But it's not good. The dry weather has stifled grazing crops, causing ranchers to pay for supplemental feed to keep up their stocks.
Mike Young, manager of Callahan's General Store in Southeast Austin, said he has seen an increase in feed purchases in recent months. But overall, the amount of feed sold by the store has plummeted over the past few years as ranchers have sold their herds after getting battered by drought.
The store has sold chickens, brought in bands on the weekends and produced book signings as it diversifies away from ranching staples, he said, since drought has profoundly affected Central Texans' willingness to ranch.
"We had a good summer in terms of moisture, but now with fall and winter, it's definitely had a toll on our winter crops," said Travis County agriculture and natural resources extension agent Brad Pierce.
The current drought has put Central Texas in greater jeopardy of fire. This week, Travis joined several surrounding counties in passing a burn ban.
"You have a lot of windy days with low humidity," said Lower Colorado River Authority meteorologist Bob Rose. "These dry cold fronts just continue to come through."
Expect below normal rainfall in coming months, Rose said. "We're looking at a drier than normal pattern going into summer."
Meteorologists say Texas is feeling the effects of La Niña, a phenomenon in which surface temperatures in the Pacific cool, typically meaning less rain across the southwestern United States.
La Niña typically peaks in the winter and subsides by early spring, but temperatures in the Pacific have not bottomed out, suggesting this year's La Niña could extend through late spring or even early summer, according to Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center in Nebraska.
Rose said an active hurricane season could break the drought, just as tropical storms dumped water over Central Texas last summer.
There is a bit of good news: Lakes are about average for this time of year, Rose said.
Scorched by the drought that ended in 2009, cities continue to shape policy to encourage conservation. On Thursday, for example, the Austin City Council passed an ordinance ordering developers to direct storm water runoff into vegetated areas (instead of storm drains) to save irrigation water.
The short-term forecast: a 10 percent chance of rain next week, says Chris Morris, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
