Drought — Uvalde, Texas

2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Uvalde, Texas

Event narrative

September was generally dry across South Central Texas and most of the area had no change in drought status. However, a few counties had enough rain to improve one category. Bandera, Llano, and Kerr went from Exceptional (D4) to Extreme (D3). Real went from D3 to Severe (D2). Bastrop, Bexar, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Comal, Fayette, Gillespie, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, Lavaca, Lee, Travis, and Williamson remained in D4. Atascosa, De Witt, Gonzales, Karnes, Medina, and Wilson remained in D3. Uvalde remained in D2. Area reservoirs continued to drop. Medina Lake dropped 1.1 feet and was 87.0 feet below normal conservation pool level. Lake Buchanan fell 1.3 feet to 27.4 feet below normal. Lake Travis was down 2.9 feet to 52.5 feet below normal. Canyon Lake dropped 1.5 feet to 18.4 feet below normal. The Edwards Aquifer actually rose 1.0 foot but was still 33.2 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 lower Colorado Rivers, and below (10%-24%) normal on the San Antonio and upper Colorado Rivers. Except for Uvalde and Williamson, all of the counties in D2 or worse drought had outdoor burn bans in effect at the end of the month.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1140383. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.