Drought — Bandera, Texas

2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Bandera, Texas

Event narrative

Nearly all of South Central Texas had below normal precipitation in December and the drought worsened in two counties and was unchanged everywhere else. Bandera and Medina Counties worsened from Severe (D2) drought to Extreme (D3) drought. Bexar, Blanco, Comal, Gillespie, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, Travis, and Williamson Counties remained in D3. Atascosa, Bastrop, Burnet, Caldwell, Gonzales, Karnes, Kerr, Llano, and Wilson Counties stayed in D2. Area reservoirs continued to be below normal conservation pool level. Medina Lake dropped 0.8 feet and was 89.3 feet below normal. Lake Buchanan actually rose 0.2 feet but was still 25.8 feet below normal. Lake Travis dropped 0.4 feet and was 49.9 feet below normal. Canyon Lake dropped 0.8 feet to 21.4 feet below normal and was at its lowest level on record. The Edwards Aquifer rose 1.5 feet but was still 28.9 feet below normal. Most public water systems encouraged at least voluntary water restrictions and many had mandatory restrictions in effect. Some of the larger services had the following: Fredericksburg Stage 4, Georgetown, Kerrville, San Antonio, Universal City, New Braunfels, and Austin Stage 2. At the end of the month, the 7-day average streamflow was much below (<10%) normal on the Medina and Guadalupe Rivers, below (10%-24%) normal on the Nueces, Frio, Colorado, and San Gabriel Rivers, and below normal to normal (25%-75%) on the San Antonio River. Of the counties in D2 or worse drought only Medina had an outdoor burn ban in effect at the end of the month.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1147773. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.