Drought in De Witt, Texas

The hot, dry summer continued this month. Nearly all of South Central Texas had less than normal rainfall. Most of the area northeast of a line from Kerrville to Karnes City received less than 25% of normal, and for most of our counties the drought worsened. Frio and Edwards went into Severe (D2) drought. Atascosa, De Witt, Gonzales, Karnes, and Wilson went into Extreme (D3) drought from less than D2. Fayette and Lavaca went from less than D2 to Exceptional (D4) drought. Bexar, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Bastrop, and Lee went from D2 to D4. Real and Medina went from D2 to D3. Bandera, Blanco, Burnet Comal, Hays, Llano, Travis, and Williamson went from D3 to D4. Uvalde remained in D2. Gillespie, Kendall, and Kerr remained in D4. Area reservoirs continued to drop. Medina Lake dropped 1.2 feet and was 85.9 feet below normal conservation pool level. Lake Buchanan fell 3.9 feet to 26.1 feet below normal. Lake Travis was down 3.9 feet to 49.6 feet below normal. Canyon Lake dropped 2.1 feet to 16.9 feet below normal. The Edwards Aquifer actually rose 0.7 feet but was still 31.3 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 and Kerrville Stage 4, Llano and Georgetown Stage 3, San Antonio, Universal City, New Braunfels, and Austin Stage 2. At the end of the month, the 7-day average streamflow was much below (<10%) normal on the Nueces, Frio, Medina, Guadalupe, and upper Colorado Rivers, and below normal (10%-24%) on the San Antonio and lower Colorado Rivers. All of the counties in D2 or worse drought had outdoor burn bans in effect at the end of the month.