Drought — Lavaca, Texas

2022-09-01 to 2022-09-30 · Lavaca, Texas

Event narrative

After beneficial rain in August, dry weather returned in September. Most of South Central Texas had below normal precipitation and drought conditions worsened or remained the same. Guadalupe and Hays Counties worsened from Extreme (D3) category to Exceptional (D4) category. Bandera and Caldwell went from Severe (D2) category to D3. Bastrop, Fayette, Lavaca, and Travis worsened to D2. Comal remained in D4. Bexar, Blanco, Kendall, and Medina stayed in D3. Burnet, Gillespie, Gonzales, Kerr, Kinney, Llano, Maverick, Real, Uvalde, Williamson, and Wilson remained in D2. Of the counties in D2 or worse drought Comal, Hays, Bexar, Blanco, Caldwell, Medina, Fayette, Maverick, Travis, and Wilson had outdoor burn bans in effect. At the end of the month the 7-day average streamflow was much below (<10%) normal on the Frio River, below (10%-24%) normal on the Medina River, below normal on the San Antonio River, much below normal on the Guadalupe River, normal to below normal on the upper Colorado River, and much below normal on the lower Colorado. The Edwards Aquifer dropped 3.6 feet and was 32.2 feet below normal at the end of the month. Area reservoirs continued to lose water. Medina Lake was down 1.1 feet to 76.8 feet below conservation pool level, and Lake Travis was down 2.0 feet to 38.2 feet below conservation level. Lake Amistad rose 12.6 feet during the month due to rainfall in Mexico but was still 41.5 feet below conservation level. Most public water systems encouraged at least voluntary water restrictions, and many had mandatory restrictions in effect. Some the larger services had the following: New Braunfels Stage 1, San Antonio Stage 2, Austin Stage 1, and Kerrville Stage 1.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1052164. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.