Drought — Roberts, Texas

2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Roberts, Texas

Event narrative

Roberts County started out in extreme (D3) drought. By the end of the first week the western half to two thirds of the county degraded into exceptional (D4) drought. A late month snow storm helped improve conditions a bit with the northwest half of the county ended the month in extreme drought while the southeast half of the county ended the month in severe (D2) drought. The county remained in a 4 to 6 defecit dating back 365 days. Drought conditions contributed to a wildfire that burned 39,568 acres that started on March 29th and ended on April 2nd. Several structures were lost in this fire.

Wider weather episode

Dry conditions continued since August of 2021 with only a few isolated events bringing minimal precipitation to the combined Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles. Soil moisture remained short to very short with supplemental feeding required for cattle with bare pastures. Other concerns for ranchers was the threat of wildfires. Tillage and winter wheat needed irrigation in order to thrive. These drought conditions contributed to multiple wildfires when combined with high wind days and low relative humidity. Across the combined Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, a total of 51082 acres were burned with 35 structures and 11 vehicles lost due to the fires.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1014209. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.