Drought — Deaf Smith, Texas

2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Deaf Smith, Texas

Event narrative

The southwestern corner of Oldham County and western quarter to third of Deaf Smith County was in Severe Drought (D2) with the rest of the area in these counties in Moderate Drought (D1). These areas of D2 did not change compared to other areas in the TX Panhandle as they only received near normal rainfall which is not enough to cut into the 6 to 12 month deficit.

Wider weather episode

An unusual rain even during the month of December dropped 3 to almost 7 across the central to eastern TX Panhandle with the higher end of this being in the southeastern TX Panhandle. This was nearly 2 to 5 above normal for December, and help cut overall rainfall deficits down allowing for some areas in Severe Drought (D2) to improve to Moderated Drought (D1) by months end. The exception was the far southwestern TX Panhandle that was in D2 but missed out on the beneficial rain during the big rain event.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1153854. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.