Drought in Sherman, Texas

A small section of northern Dallam and Sherman counties up against the Oklahoma Panhandle started the month of May in Extreme Drought (D3). The rest of Dallam and Sherman, and all of Hartley and Moore, counties started the month in Severe Drought (D2). Around half way through the month all of Dallam, the northwest two thirds of Hartley and just about all of Sherman had degraded to D3. Rain events just started to pick up across the combined Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles which spared the area of D2 from D3 until later in the month. By month's end Moore County fell into D3 while a good portion of Dallam, Sherman, and north-central Hartley improved back to D2. The entire area kept a 120 day deficit around 1 to 4. This late into the spring, crop and other agricultural damage had already been done.

A very dry spring led to the development of Extreme (D3) to Exceptional (D4) drought in the combined Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles. With an extra prolonged period of dryness and abnormally warm temperatures both in May and leading up to May, drought impacts were felt quite a bit. Not only were crops not surviving spring planting, but grasses remained abnormally dry and dormant for this time of year. This lead to extreme wildfire conditions as temperatures reached the upper 90s.