Drought in Dimmit, Texas

July was another month with below normal precipitation across nearly all of South Central Texas and the drought continued to worsen. Bexar, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Karnes, Kinney, Maverick, Uvalde, Wilson, and Zavala Counties moved from Extreme (D3) to Exceptional (D4) drought. Caldwell, Dimmit, Hays, Lavaca, Lee, Travis, and Williamson moved from Severe (D2) to D3. Bastrop and Fayette moved into D2. Atascosa, Bandera, Blanco, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Medina, and Real remained in D4. Burnet, Comal, De Witt, Frio, and Llano remained in D3. Val Verde remained in D2. Edwards County which had some areas get above normal rainfall improved from D4 to D3. All public water systems encouraged at least voluntary water restrictions and many had mandatory restrictions in effect. Some the larger services had the following: Fredericksburg Stage 3, New Braunfels Stage 3, San Antonio Stage 2, San Marcos Stage 2, Austin Stage 1, Del Rio Stage 1, Kerrville Stage 1, and Pleasanton Stage 1. Georgetown declared Stage 2 this month, and Hutto declared Stage 3. The Edwards Aquifer dropped 1.3 feet and was 27.2 feet below normal. Area reservoirs continued to fall farther below normal conservation pool levels. Lake Amistad fell 1.4 feet to 63.9 feet below normal, Medina Lake was down 5.3 feet to 71.5 below normal, and Lake Travis dropped 3.5 feet to 34.5 feet below normal. All of the counties in D2 or worse drought had outdoor burn bans in effect. The 7-day average streamflow on the Upper Guadalupe River was near the all-time low. All of the other rivers in the region were below to much below normal.