Drought in Randall County, Texas

At the start of August Randall County was in Severe Drought (D2) in the north to northeast half of the county while the south to southwest was in either Extreme Drought (D3) or Exceptional Drought (D4). The area of D4 was the far southwest corner. Over the course of the month the eastern half of the county received 2 to 5 of rain while the western half only received 1 to 3 of rain. Conditions improved by months end with the southwest corner still in D2 while the rest of the county improved to Moderate Drought (D1) conditions. The southwest corner in D2 remained in a 6 to 12 deficit year to date.

Beneficial rains have remained isolated across the combined Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles through the month of August. Many areas across the combined Panhandles continued to remain in quite the deficit for rainfall with soil conditions remaining poor to very poor. Some areas did see an improvement with August rains but this was limited to the central to east-central Texas Panhandle. Drought conditions continued to keep rangelands bare, forcing ranchers to continue to sell off cattle as supplemental feeding has been too expensive this year especially when cattle should be grazing. Peanut farmers are expected to see a yield loss of 30% to 50% across much of West Texas into the Panhandle.