Drought — Wheeler, Texas

2023-06-01 to 2023-06-13 · Wheeler, Texas

Event narrative

A small area of Severe Drought (D2) existed in the northeast corner of Wheeler County at the beginning of the month. Several back to back rain events occurred in the beginning of the month lead to much of the county to rid itself of drought by mid month. The county had received 8 to 12 of rain for the entire month.

Wider weather episode

Rain event after rain event continued to occur going into the month of June for the combined Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles. However, this time the higher amounts of rain fell over the Oklahoma Panhandle and northern Texas Panhandle. This wiped out the remaining drought in the area with the exception of far southeast Collingsworth County. Rivers and tributaries were starting to reach their banks and flood over them. The amount of rain that fell in May, leading into June, had caused the Canadian River to reach one of its highest points since the 1970s reaching 10.53' at the river gauge north of Amarillo just after midnight on June 1st. Thankfully the rains had shift northward to help eliminate much of the drought in the Oklahoma Panhandle, and as not to continue flooding areas across the the central to southern Texas Panhandle. Although some flooding did start to manifest in the north during the month of June.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1106603. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.