Drought — Deaf Smith, Texas

2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Deaf Smith, Texas

Event narrative

The entire county of Deaf Smith County was in Moderate Drought (D1) through the month of September. Going into the beginning of October the western fourth to third of the county slipped into Severe Drought (D3) and stayed in D3 through the end of the month. The county ended the month with 1 to 1.5 below normal for monthly precipitation during the month of October.

Wider weather episode

With rain shutting off mid June for much of the southern Texas Panhandle, this region was seeing major drought impacts by October, despite some record rainfall May through early June. Pumpkin yields were down almost 20-40% due to the dry and warm summer months continuing well into fall. Several grass fires have started around the area as well with a few of these fires becoming large and taking a good part of the day to put out. The main area suffering from drought remained across the I-40 corridor with areas just to the north and south of the interstate suffering the most from the lack of summer moisture, especially around Potter, Randall, Caron, and Armstrong Counties.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1143330. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.