Drought conditions worsen and expand in this week’s update

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Like clockwork, an updated drought monitor is released every Thursday morning. And also like clockwork, the past few weeks have shown that the drought is worsening & expanding as extremely dry and significantly hot conditions continue.

For the Brazos Valley, “severe drought” (Level 3 of 5) has expanded farther north and eastward with this week’s update, and “extreme drought” (Level 4 of 5) has expanded farther north, now including eastern Lee County and the southern half of Burleson and Brazos counties. The last time severe drought had settled into a good chunk of Brazos County was back in October of 2015, almost 2,500 days ago.

Even though it’s not included in this week’s update, several residents in Bryan-College Station were lucky enough to receive a few quick downpours on Wednesday. However, the rain activity was pretty isolated with Easterwood Airport only measuring a trace amount of rainfall. That means that the official rain gauge for BCS measured less than 0.01″ of an inch. Other areas, like Kyle Field’s rain gauge, measured 0.24″ of rainfall.

The Office of the Texas State Climatologist collects data for each week’s drought monitor on Tuesdays. This week’s drought update represents the drought conditions taken the morning of July 26, so the rain found on July 27 is not included. However, the scattered rain found east of the Navasota River last Friday, July 22, is included in this week’s update.

Though not for everyone, Wednesday’s rainfall was much appreciated, but it did not rain nearly enough to help alleviate the severity of the current drought. According to the Climate Prediction Center, the Brazos Valley needs over 15 inches of rainfall to escape drought conditions, and rain continues to look sparse in the forecast.

Comparatively, the Brazos Valley looks to be in considerably less drought than other portions of Texas. Maroon “exceptional drought” (Level 5 of 5) pockets continue to grow across parts of Texas.

With high pressure controlling the weather pattern for the foreseeable future, any chance for widespread rainfall is not looking very likely at the moment. The entire state of Texas needs widespread rainfall to reverse the incredibly dry summer so far.

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