Drought — Zavala, Texas

2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Zavala, Texas

Event narrative

Drought conditions generally improved in April. Most of the eastern half of South Central Texas received normal or greater precipitation. Hays County improved from Exceptional (D4) drought to Severe (D2) drought. Bexar, Comal, and Gillespie Counties improved from D4 to Extreme (D3) drought. Despite the good rain some counties were unchanged. Burnet (D3), Blanco (D4), and Kendall (D4) all stayed in the same category. The western half of the area was not as fortunate with less than normal rainfall and this area was mostly unchanged from March. Zavala County was the only county that worsened going from D2 to D3. Bandera, Kerr, and Medina stayed in D4, Dimmit, Llano, Real, and Uvalde stayed in D3, and Edwards, Frio, Kinney, and Maverick stayed in D2. Of the counties in D2 or worse drought Bandera, Bexar, Dimmit, Kerr, Maverick, and Zavala has outdoor burn bans in effect at the end of the month. The 7-day average streamflow on the Nueces River was much below normal (<10%), the Frio River was much below normal, the Medina River was below normal (10%-24%), the San Antonio River was normal to below normal, the upper Guadalupe River was much below normal, and the upper Colorado River was below normal. Area reservoirs continued to drop. Medina Lake dropped 1.7 feet and was 83.3 feet below Conservation Pool level. Canyon Lake dropped 0.8 feet and was 12 feet below Conservation Pool level. The Edwards Aquifer received good rain over the drainage and recharge zones and its level rose 5.1 feet. However, it was still 25 feet below normal. Most public water systems encouraged at least voluntary water restrictions and many had mandatory restrictions in effect. Some of the larger services had the following: Fredericksburg Stage 3, New Braunfels Stage 1, San Antonio Stage 2, and Kerrville Stage 1.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1091051. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.