Posted: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 09:22 AM - 6,605 Readers
By: Steve Campbell
North Texas has had average rainfall this year, and three "cool" days this week felt like Christmas in July. But don’t tell your friends in Central and South Texas, because they are feeling hot, parched and bothered.
A "once-in-a-century" drought is baking a big swath of Texas, says John Nielsen-Gammon, state climatologist and a professor at Texas A&M University.
The drought is "zeroing out" crops and forcing ranchers to liquidate their herds. It’s also crimping summer recreation.
Some Hill Country swimming holes like the Pedernales and Blanco rivers have gone underground in places. The Guadalupe River, normally a paddling paradise, has dwindled to a trickle above Canyon Lake.
"It’s at a good level for cleaning the river. I’m finding all kinds of cool stuff," said Wendall Lyons, who owns Bigfoot Canoes near Spring Branch.
The river is flowing at 10 cubic feet per second, Lyons said Wednesday. "Normal for this time of the year is 100 to 200 cfs," he said. "We used to think 100 was low, but the last two years have changed our perspective."
People are comparing the conditions to the epic drought of the 1950s, he said. "It’s been so dry it’s even killing cedar trees, so you know it’s dry."
Tubers below Canyon Lake Dam caught a break for the July Fourth weekend when officials released extra water at the request of the city of Victoria. The river was so low that the city’s pumps couldn’t reach the water.
On Lake Travis, which is down by 40 feet, only one of 12 boat ramps still reaches the water. Flows from the Edwards Aquifer that feed Barton Springs, Austin’s iconic swimming pool, are at their second-lowest level in 30 years, said Luke Metzger of Environment Texas.
The drought has shifted the demographics at Guadalupe River State Park near San Antonio, said Superintendent Mark Abolafia-Rosenzweig.
"It went from river runners to families," he said. "The river is too low to float, but it’s ideal for people with young kids because it’s only knee-deep.
"The last good rain we had was two years ago around Labor Day, and then the faucet shut off," he said.
According to the National Weather Service, the last 22 months have been the driest on record in San Antonio.
The drought and relentless heat are taking a toll on agriculture, says Harley Clark, a 73-year-old vegetable grower in Dripping Springs.
The two creeks and small storage reservoir that Clark taps for irrigation have dried up, and he’s relying on mineral-laden well water.
And then there’s the heat.
"It’s just damn unpleasant," said Clark, a former district judge in Travis County. "At 10:30 in the morning, it’s so hot you can’t stand it."
He says the drought has halved his production. "The cucumbers and squash have just quit on me. It’s sad. You ought to see my scrawny eggplants — they are little midgets."
David Huber, a 61-year-old farmer and rancher in Victoria, says soil conditions are the "worst I’ve seen in all my years."
"We happen to be sitting in a spot where it just won’t rain," he said as he worked to get a windmill up and running.
"At this point, I love the outdoors, but I’ve had about all of Mother Nature I can deal with," he said.
Joe Janak, Texas AgriLife Extension Service agent for Victoria County, says the area has received 5 inches of rain since October instead of the normal 25.
"Ranchers are busy just hauling water or moving cattle because the grass is so thin," he said.
Travis Miller, extension program leader for the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M, says the drought fires up about 50 miles south of Fort Worth.
"The further south you go, the worse it is. It looks like winter out there," he said.
With forage disappearing, "ranchers are liquidating herds. We are seeing volumes three or four times the normal at sales," Miller said.
In 2006, when the last drought blanketed Texas, agricultural losses were estimated at over $4 billion, Miller said. "In March, we were projecting $875 million in losses," but that was before conditions worsened, he said.
North Texans can thank rains in April and June for keeping things mild by comparison, says Daniel Huckaby, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office.
"All that moisture keeps things from drying out and heating up," Huckaby said. "For the month of June at D/FW Airport, we only had five 100-degree days. Waco went over a month without measurable rainfall, and they’ve had 14 100-degree days and a few with 105 or more."
The heat is sending some Pedernales Falls State Park campers back inside.
"The river is really low in the park, but it’s still good to get in and get wet," Manager Bill McDaniel said. "But the heat is just driving people away. They come up to camp, but they are leaving before their reservations are up."
That might be a sign of things to come, Nielsen-Gammon said. "Unless there is a moderate tropical disturbance that can come up from the coast, it appears this drought is going to last for a while," he said.
