Texas Drought: Wet Winter Doesn't Mean It's Over

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — An unusually wet winter that brought badly needed relief to a state suffering through a historic drought is no guarantee that bone-dry conditions won't return to Texas later this year, the National Weather Service warned state officials Monday.

"We're in a positive phase of getting out of the drought," meteorologist Barry Goldsmith said. "But notice I'm mincing my words. We're not out of the woods just yet."

Soaking rains since December have saturated parts of Texas with as much as 12 inches more rain than normal for this time of year, injecting color and growth back into browned and brittle landscapes. There should be even more rainfall in April and May across state, Goldsmith said.

But after that, Goldsmith said, all bets are off. He said only a tropical storm or hurricane this summer can likely completely extinguish statewide drought conditions, particularly in West Texas, where much of the region remains in the two most severe stages of drought.

Goldsmith delivered the drought forecast to state emergency responders during the first day of the Texas Emergency Management Conference. Wildfires and the drought dominate the agenda after Texas suffered nearly $8 billion in agriculture losses and blazes charred nearly 4 million acres last year.

Gov. Rick Perry began the conference by reminding officials the state was still in the throes of the drought and more damage is likely on the horizon

"Look for another outbreak of wildfires this summer as we go through the rest of the year," Perry said.

Last year was the driest on record in Texas. Goldsmith began by showing the drought map for April 2011, when the state started plunging into an extended spell of dryness that culminated with 86 percent of Texas languishing in "exceptional drought" by September.

Blistering temperatures and the lack of rain depleted lakes and reservoirs, which left several small towns in Texas scrambling to find water. At one point, more than a month passed in Texas with less than an inch of rain in the entire state.

The drought started in fall 2010 with the arrival of the La Nina weather phenomenon that causes below-normal rainfall. Goldsmith said the state is moving out of the La Nina and appears headed to weather-neutral or El Nino phase, in which Texas winters tend to be cooler and wetter.

"If we go anywhere next winter, it will be a weak El Nino," Goldsmith said.

Also on HuffPost:

From our partners

• How Two Determined Sisters Set Up A Pet Rescue Pipeline To Colorado - Mother Nature Network
• Panel Finds Flaws In Hurricane Sandy Warning System - Climate Central
• 11 Images And Facts About A Misunderstood Creature - Mother Nature Network

Comments

[Winterseeker]

02:00 PM on 04/04/2012

They should never have lived there to begin with...the consequences of damaging the natural climate are catching up with them only now...they should stop the out-of-control growth and maybe even outright evacuate at this rate...

[Moose Luck 99]

11:24 AM on 04/04/2012

A plan to get water to dry areas!

http://larouchepac.com/node/22137

[Randy Cullar]

08:10 AM on 04/04/2012

I've got it ! GOD is punishing TEXAS for RICK PERRY !

[bryanzth]

09:15 AM on 04/04/2012

Do you think he even pays attention to him? :D

BZ.

[Randy Cullar]

09:39 AM on 04/04/2012

Well, if nothing else the Deity is sorely pissed at Rev Rick for going so far off message . . . The good folk of Texas deserve better -- I'm a former resident BTW & survived tornadoes that were way too close for comfort !

[trailerguy]

10:37 AM on 04/04/2012

and alot of other stuff

[mcmutter]

06:00 AM on 04/04/2012

they drink out of puddles ...

maybe Perry should invest $$$ in some water infrastructure ....

[hereisallie]

09:15 AM on 04/04/2012

There was some talk about a pipeline to divert overflow from the Mississippi River to Texas reservoirs, but nobody wants to pay for it. It seems to me that they are more interested in oil pipelines (profit) than water pipelines (people).

[floridan56]

05:05 AM on 04/04/2012

pumping from below and burning from above. Sounds like paradise.
Does Texas have any trees left?

[bryanzth]

09:25 AM on 04/04/2012

It could be the new Libertarian Paradise of Texas, then. No govt. No taxes. No regulation. And nowhere to be safe before, during and after bad weather and droughts. It will cause mass migrations.

Read Grapes of Wrath for a taste of the future from the past. Written 1939, I believe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapes_of_wrath

Imagine. No govt, so a company can pay what they want. They can treat you as they wish. Your neighbor can take your land, and if his guns are bigger than your guns, you let him.

NOW that's the TEXAN Paradise that is coming.

Texas Democrats, better either motivate yourselves or get ready to move. ;o)

BZ. (Democratic Party Member)

[124pythias]

03:55 AM on 04/04/2012

They'll be fine. After all, global warming's just a big hoax.

[Candw1]

11:15 PM on 04/03/2012

For God's sake...can't you just let us enjoy not being in a drought for a few minutes.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

09:48 PM on 04/03/2012

As the equatorial oceans warm the Hadley cells will continue to expand. The descending loop of the cells fall to earth at about 30 degrees of latitude north and south. As the northern one moves north, to 31 or 32 degrees north the land under the descending hot dry winds will turn into desert, the New Sahara.

A wet winter may provide some temporary relief but in the long run the land south of the 31st parallel will be desert (except for Florida which receives rainwater from the Gulf.) The lands south of the 32nd parallel will be arid, and farming there is unlikely to be successful, the more so as the Ogallala Aquifer is running out of water.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-ogallala-aquifer

[vakh]

01:44 AM on 04/04/2012

Every 20 years.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

02:07 AM on 04/04/2012

Does your reply have any relationship to reality or is it just the first 3 words that you happened to pull out of a box full of random words?

[French Toast]

05:30 AM on 04/04/2012

Clap louder!

[mistergg69]

08:55 PM on 04/03/2012

Republican platform: "global warming is a hoax"

[vakh]

01:45 AM on 04/04/2012

This is cyclica.
You would know it.
lf you had bothered to learn anything.

[joekel]

02:46 AM on 04/04/2012

"cyclica" just how stupid are you? Apparently very stupid.

[dagremlin]

04:18 AM on 04/04/2012

Learn what and where? Glenn Beck U?

Explain seagulls in El Paso, Texas. Birds have an innate homing mechanism which has been thrown off now for over a decade because something is out of whack. There is no water here for seagulls and they have trouble finding food. They never came here prior to about 2000. My guess is the thermals they use to navigate are off by a lot.

By the way, "You would know it. If you had bothered to learn anything" is worse than a comma splice. I wouldn't want to go to school wherever you went. Unless the case is that you "didn't learn anything" or, maybe, never went to school. ;)

[floridan56]

05:08 AM on 04/04/2012

don't forget that Obama is satan too. in the TPUB point of view.

[bryanzth]

09:31 AM on 04/04/2012

LOL!

BZ.