Drought — Armstrong, Texas

2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Armstrong, Texas

Event narrative

Armstrong County started the month of October with the northwest corner of the county in Severe Drought (D2) with the rest of the county in Moderate Drought (D1) or Abnormally Dry (D0). By mid month the area of D2 increased with the rest of the northern third of the county degrading into D2 as well. The county remained abnormally dry through the month of October with only receiving 5-50% of the normal October precipitation.

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 1145123. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.