(uplifting music)
[Mark Wentzel] Hi everyone,
and welcome to the Texas Water Development Board's
latest Water and Weather Report.
I'm Dr. Mark Wentzel,
a hydrologist in the Surface Water Division
here at the agency.
And today, we're going to take a look
at conditions for our state at the end of December 2020.
As Texas ended 2020, 81 percent of the state was in drought.
That's a modest three percentage point improvement
from late November,
but much worse than the start of the year
when only 38 percent of the state was in drought.
Let's take a look at some of the big water
and weather headlines at the end of 2020.
La Niña conditions are reducing rainfall across the state.
These conditions are expected to continue
at least through the end of spring of 2021.
The northern tip of the Panhandle and the upper Gulf Coast,
from Houston to the Louisiana border,
are the only drought-free areas in the state.
West Texas remains the area of the state
most severely impacted by drought.
Statewide, storage in our water supply reservoirs
ended the year at 80 percent,
about one and a half percentage points below normal
for this time of year.
To see how the conditions vary,
let's take a virtual road trip on I-10,
from east to west across our state,
via images from Google Maps
and data from the National Weather Service.
We'll be making three stops on our trip,
Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso.
In an average year,
we'd expect annual rainfall totals along our route
to drop from a little over 50 inches in Houston,
to about 29 inches in San Antonio,
to less than nine inches in El Paso.
How did we do this year?
On this chart, we're looking at 2020 monthly rainfall data
for Houston in red,
along with maximum, minimum,
and average monthly values in gray and black.
In the Houston area,
we finished the year with an annual rainfall total
of more than 60 inches,
about 10 inches more than average.
In October, Houston received
less than 20 percent of normal rainfall,
which brought the area close to drought,
but they finished the year
with average rainfall in November,
and nearly twice average rainfall in December.
This part of the state,
from the Louisiana border to Houston,
is one of only two areas of the state that are drought-free.
As we head west on I-10,
conditions get much drier.
Midway across the state, San Antonio recorded
about 21 inches of precipitation in 2020,
8 inches less than normal.
In fact, the seven-month period from June to December
was the third driest such period in 126 years.
The U.S. Drought Monitor currently shows
this area in drought,
with about half the area in extreme drought.
As we had farther west,
drought conditions continue to intensify.
Near the I-10, I-20 junction in Reeves County,
we are in a part of the state
that the U.S. Drought Monitor considers
to be in exceptional drought,
the most severe drought category.
By the time we get to El Paso,
things are slightly improved,
with a mix of severe and extreme drought
covering the landscape.
El Paso's rainfall total for 2020
was just under 6 inches, about 70 percent of normal.
But the second half of the year was much drier.
In fact, El Paso ended the year
with the driest August through December
in the last 126 years.
Without additional precipitation,
this area could soon join much of West Texas
in exceptional drought.
That concludes our virtual road trip across the state
at the end of 2020.
But what might 2021 hold for us?
According to the National Weather Service,
the early months of 2021
are expected to be drier and warmer than usual for Texas,
bringing drought to the entire state by the end of March.
Beyond March, there is some good news.
A 50 percent chance that La Niña conditions dissipate
during the April to June time period,
which could bring us some drought relief.
That concludes our report.
Until next time, I hope you all stay healthy and safe.