Drought — Willacy, Texas

2023-10-01 to 2023-10-09 · Willacy, Texas

Event narrative

Severe (D2) Drought continued across the northern half of Willacy County until October 9th, before the area would be sharply trimmed back to just a sliver of the far western portion of the county near the Hidalgo and Kenedy County line on the 10th. The trim-back was courtesy of torrential thunderstorm rains that dropped an estimated 3 to 5 inches of rainfall over farmland east of Raymondville and Lyford during the afternoon of October 5th.

Wider weather episode

Searing heat that dominated September continued into the first four days of October across the entire region, maintaining Severe (D2) to Extreme (D3) Drought. Localized clusters of thunderstorms from southern Kenedy through Brownsville (Cameron County), and across the Jim Hogg/Starr/Zapata Brush Country/Rio Grande Plains on October 5th, associated with a cooling front, would begin gradual improvements across the entire region - though Severe to Extreme conditions would persist a bit longer.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1144872. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.