According to the US Drought Monitor's March 20th snapshot, parts of Travis County have eased out of "Extreme" drought conditions into "Severe, Moderate, or Abnormally Dry" drought this week.
Levels of drought intensity measure, from least to greatest, are:
- Abnormally Dry
- Moderate
- Severe
- Extreme
- Exceptional
Drought map Travis County, 3/20/12.
Google map of Travis County.
Austin, Central Texas, and Texas in general spent much of 2011 at the highest level of drought: "Exceptional." Good news is, exceptionally heavy rains
have helped mitigate a lot of local worst case scenarios for the time
being in the Central Texas area. On March 22nd the Edwards Aquifer
District declared itself "out of drought,"
local news reports confirm that area lake levels are slowly rising, and Central Texans should count on a
few more rains in April and May, further helping to restore normalcy to the local environment.
But according to real time monitoring from LakeLevels.info, Austinites in particular have a long way to go. Austin's Lake Travis is still 41.30 feet below full pool
today (March 25th), Lake Buchanan is 21.96 feet below. Lake Travis is
where Austinites get potable water, Lake Buchanan the largest lake
in Central Texas's all important Highland Lakes system. Looking
forward, Texas's state climatologist projects "exceptional drought" will return to Central Texas this summer (and fall) for at least the next five years.
State-wide, compared to this time last year, large areas of Texas are looking normal in terms of drought, most notably the
Dallas/Ft. Worth area, but nearly 18% of our state is already in the highest
level of drought (primarily in West Texas). Last year 0% of Texas was at the highest level of drought at this time. See state climatologist John Nielsen-Gamman's recent overview here.
Of course you've heard about 2011's wildfires, tree losses, $8B in agricultural & livestock losses,
and etc. resulting from record dryness and high heat across Texas. From the environmentalist point of view these impacts undermine the greater
natural system we all rely on for security, sustainability, and quality
of life. From a climate science point of view these impacts look an
awful lot like what is "supposed to be happening" according to high greenhouse gas emissions climate science modeling. According to climate math and science, the traumatic impacts Central Texans are experiencing today are only the beginning of a
whole-scale metamorphosis -- wherein Central Texas's moisture cycle
diminishes to the point that our environs literally become a
desert. At the rate we're going such metamorphosis will occur during the next 50 years. The only way to slow, avoid or stop such a metamorphosis is to stop emissions, redesign irrigation, conserve water, and preserve vegetation.
Image on right shows number of days over 100F per year
March 24th, 2012 map of Cen Tex counties, by KVUE.
Visit the LCRA's "drought update" page for more info on Central Texas.
###
No comments:
Post a Comment