Drought — Starr, Texas

2023-10-01 to 2023-10-16 · Starr, Texas

Event narrative

Extreme Drought (D3) prevailed across all but the northeast quarter of Starr County through October 10th, with Severe (D2) Drought elsewhere.

Heavy rains during the afternoon and evening of October 5th across the western two-thirds of the county would help improve from Extreme to Severe across all but the southeast quarter of Starr County on October 10th, before additional improvements arrived by the 17th - courtesy of additional rainfall on the 10th. Severe Drought would be trimmed across western Starr and Extreme Drought eliminated in southeast Starr on that date.

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 1144877. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.