TYLER, TEXAS — A year that started off with several months in which rainfall records were set for locations around East Texas took a remarkably dry turn over the month of May. That lack of rainfall has prompted the United States Drought Monitor, a product created in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) to classify portions of East Texas as being in a moderate drought, while others are seeing abnormally dry conditions. Even with the additional rainfall we picked up this week, drought and abnormally dry conditions have expanded over East Texas.
How Did We Get Here?
Many East Texans can easily think back to the heavy rainfall and flooding we had earlier this year and wonder how things could have shifted so quickly. Looking at the weather data, we were heading in a positive direction for much of the year. February ended up 4.08" above normal for Tyler and March was 0.47" above normal. That all started to change in April, when we ended the month 1.19" below normal in Tyler. That was compounded by a month of May, where we usually see 4.59" of rain, but only picked up 0.92". That left us down 3.85" for the month and down 2.28" for the year. Since then Tyler has only added 0.07" to our rain buckets, leaving us down 3.13" on the year.
In fact all of East Texas was down in the month of May. Longview only picked up 0.68" in May, leaving them down 4.14" for the month but still up 4.17" for the year due to previous heavy rains. (Longview has added 0.92" so far in June, leaving them at +4.15" on the year.) A similar story has played out in Lufkin, where they only picked up 1.09" in May, ending the month down 3.55" but still up on the year by 1.25". (Adding just a trace of rain in June so far has now left them only +0.33" for the year.)
The rain this week has changed the location of the Moderate Drought in East Texas, but did little to alleviate our overall dryness. Due to the continued lack of rainfall portions of East Texas, including Camp, Morris, Cass, Gregg, Marion, Harrison, Rusk, Panola, Henderson, Anderson, and Upshur Counties are now classified under a D1 Moderate Drought. The remainders of these counties, and at least a portion of every other county in East Texas, is now also classified as having D0 Abnormally Dry conditions. See the maps below for the areas affected and how they have changed from this time last week.
Statewide:
Statewide Texas continues to deal with plenty of dry conditions despite any rain received over the last week. As of June 7th 44.37% of the state was experiencing a Moderate Drought or worse. This was up by 4.31% compared to this time last week. Additionally, 7.29% of the state was experiencing an Extreme or Exceptional Drought. However, this was down from 7.82% of the state last week and 14.16% of the state 3 months ago. See the statewide maps below for more information and to see how things have changed since last week.
With only small chances for rain in the coming forecast, things are likely get worse before they get better in East Texas. Make sure you stay with CBS 19 for the latest, and as always, be careful when dealing with fire or sources of heat near dry vegetation.
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