Drought — Lubbock, Texas

2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31 · Lubbock, Texas

$5.0M

Property damage

Wider weather episode

The Drought Index across the South Plains, Rolling Plains and extreme southern Texas Panhandle was reduced thanks to an extremely wet December. The wetter than normal conditions that began in the fall continued into December with one of the wettest Decembers on record. These increased moisture conditions improved the drought. No areas showed D4 (Exceptional) drought across the area. All other areas were further reduced, with much of the area in D3 and D2 (Severe) with D0 (Abnormally Dry) over Hall County.

2011 ended up being one of the driest or the driest year on record for many locations despite ending on a wet note. Several storm systems affected the West Texas region with significant snowfall on the 24th-25th. The areas that experienced record dryness were about 30% of normal for precipitation amounts. Some of these record locations include 4.84 inches at Brownfield (Terry County) and Plains (Yoakum County), 5.23 inches at Tahoka (Lynn County), 5.86 inches at Lubbock (Lubbock County), and 5.87 inches at Levelland (Hockley County). Keetch-Byram Drought Index values had further decreased through the month of December ranging from 300 over the extreme southeastern Texas Panhandle to 600 over the southwestern South Plains.

Agricultural and livestock losses were much lower than seen in previous months. Winter wheat was in fair condition with producers able to turn cattle on it for grazing by the end of December. Livestock producers continued to provide some supplemental feed. Cooler temperatures with significant rain and snowfall resulted in suppressed fire weather activity. The recent precipitation began to boost stock ponds and smaller watering holes while the larger water systems had yet to respond with any notable improvements.

Economic losses due to drought through December since the drought began were estimated near $2.3 billion.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 353193. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.