Drought — Randall County, Texas

2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Randall County, Texas

Event narrative

Randall County remained dry through the month with Severe (D2) to Extreme (D3) drought conditions in the western half and Moderate Drought (D1) conditions to the east. The County remained in 4 to 10 rainfall deficit from last year.

Wider weather episode

Soil moisture remained short to very short through the month of January across the combined OK and TX Panhandles. Range lands remained barren, leaving ranchers needing to supplementally feed livestock. Feed continues to be expensive leaving ranchers selling more cattle off than they normally would. Winter crops have not been doing well either. Many lakes and streams remain below normal levels across the area. The OK Panhandle and portions of the northern TX Panhandle remained in dire conditions with only receiving 25% to 50% of normal precipitation over the entire year of 2022. This is the same for portions of southern Deaf Smith County as well in the Texas Panhandle. Much of these areas received only 25% or less of their normal January precipitation, continuing a large deficit that will take many months to recover from.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1077305. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.