Drought in Lubbock, Texas

All exceptional (D4) drought was absent from the area at the beginning of January. However, a very dry month lead to the reintroduction of exceptional conditions on the South Plains by the end of the month. Only two light precipitation events occurred during January and these two events did not bring much precipitation. Hall county remained in Abnormally Dry (D0) conditions.

Very warm and dry conditions persisted through the start of 2012. Temperatures averaged around four degrees above normal with only 5% of normal precipitation received. Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport recorded only 0.01 of precipitation while Childress Municipal Airport recorded 0.03. A few isolated areas received up to 0.3 liquid equivalent during the month. Significant weather systems did move across West Texas and brought record precipitation to areas south of the South Plains and Rolling Plains. Keetch-Byram Drought Index values had slightly increased across all areas. Values ranged from 500-600 across the western South Plains to 300-400 across the southern Rolling Plains.

Agricultural and livestock losses remained steady through the first month of the year. Soil moisture as a whole was depleted in January after repeated rounds of warm, dry and windy conditions. A severe wind and blowing dust event on January 22nd heavily damaged or destroyed many winter wheat crops. Most cotton farmers were beginning to prepare fields and reported very poor deep soil moisture below eight inches. Livestock was generally reported to be in fair condition.

Economic losses due to drought through January since the drought began were estimated near $2.4 billion.