Drought in Randall County, Texas

March started with eastern Randall County in D1, the extreme southwest in D3, and the rest of the County in D2. The area of D1 was replaced by D2 with the March 21 update. No changes otherwise. Most of the County received 0.25 to 0.5 of rain, but a hole of 0.1 to 0.25 was observed around Canyon. This was 10-25% of average for Canyon, eastern Randall County, and southern Randall County which is 1 to 2 of average in the east and southwest. Elsewhere in the County, it was 25-50% of average which is 0.5 to 1 below average.

Soil conditions around the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles were short to very short during the month of March. Moisture received during the month ranged from zero in the northeast to just under an inch for areas in the southwest Texas Panhandle. Wheat and oat conditions were in poor shape during the month. Farmers who could irrigate were applying water but could barely keep up. Preplanting was delayed dramatically during this March as well. High winds during the month caused quite a bit of erosion in dry fields and also led to high fire danger days. One wild fire did occur in Wheeler County which burned an estimated 1033 acres over the span of 3 hours. Overall conditions of pasture and rangelands were poor to very poor with cattle needing supplemental feeding.