Drought — Southern Hidalgo County, Texas

2023-10-01 to 2023-10-16 · Southern Hidalgo County, Texas

Event narrative

Extreme (D3) Drought prevailed in southern Hidalgo, generally from the Rio Grande to 15-17 miles north of the river, bounded by Citrus City through south Edinburg to 5-8 miles north of Donna/Weslaco/Mercedes, with Severe (D2) Drought elsewhere, through October 16th. A broad area of 1 to 1.5 inches of rain on October 10 was sufficient to reduce Extreme Drought to Severe (D2) Drought in these areas.

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 1144875. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.