Texas became for the 1st time in years 100% Drought free with this morning's weekly monitor update:

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?TX



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The U.S. Drought Monitor is jointly produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Map courtesy of NDMC-UNL

Someone must not have heard about O.H. Ivie and Hubbard Creek..

Reservoir's present water levels do not translate directly to current drought conditions....especially reservoirs built in arid desert like climates repeatedly being over-drawn down as a water supply. Levels then can remain low even if normal rains maintain the moisture levels in the surrounding soils.



(No areas above are currently considered to be under Drought conditions.)

Don't forget Meredith, Greenbelt or Palo Duro.

and spence, sweetwater, oak creek, colorado city, champion, twin buttes, oc fisher,brady and im sure more that i forget..

Yep, every lake within 50 miles of me is still needing a lot more water! Sweetwater and Oak Creek are the closest and neither have a usable ramp at this time.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^This

Drought is a measurement of rainfall, not lake levels.

Yes.....Drought at least on the US Drought Monitor seems a broad measurement of the 'normal' for that location and season's soil moisture content...... being affected by rain, humidity, winds, sun/cloud and such.

So after a record rainfall here in Abilene last week, the soil moisture sucks, as there are already cracks in my yard and I just mowed and it was dusty as usual. So, I really don't care what the "drought monitor" says, West Texas is still hurting.
What people who don't live around West TX can't realize is how severe the drought situation actually was.

I was born/grew up in Odessa almost60 years ago. Everyone including myself back then also continually complained of drought conditions...even in the years of near record local rains, which wss still not much rain. The dusty sandy soil blown by hot summer winds dryed out in less than a week back then too.

The reservoirs, those that had been earlier built, supplied far fewer towns/population and they stayed more empty than full most years. Champion Creek was most always a mudhole. New reservoirs were never-the-less approved and with taxes, built just upstream of the very reservoirs that had rarely or never been full.

Hope you get more rains soon.

Certainly hope the lakes out west get more rain, but it is nice to be "officially" drought free!

Yeah, well for right now - agree. But ya'll hold on. Summer just now coming in...if we don't get some follow on ran showers (not frog stranglers like we recently had), we may well fall back in to another 'drought' situation.
Maybe, God I hope not, as severe as we had these past years but we need consistent rainfall.
I pray we keep getting some.
JMO...
God Bless

Nobody in the big country or the concho valley would agree with the "national drought monitor".