Much of central and southern Texas is abnormally dry following unusually warm weather and two months of scanty rainfall, reports the Drought Monitor.
Nearly 4 percent of the state is in moderate drought, with the most pronounced moisture shortages just north of Austin. A week earlier, no part of the state was in drought. In many parts of Texas, temperatures are 10-degrees higher than usual, with highs above 80 degrees. Some 45 percent of the state is listed by the Monitor as abnormally dry, compared to 12 percent the previous week.
In the Hill Country of central and south Texas, “temperatures and moisture are what peach farmers focus on. This winter hasn’t brought much cold, and lately we haven’t see a lot of rainfall,” said KENS-TV in San Antonio. Orchard owner Gary Marburger told the station, “We are starting to see that we have to go down 10 or 12 inches before we find any moisture in the soil.” Marburger is irrigating his 1,500 peach trees, but irrigation “doesn’t do the full job of rainfall. It’s just supplemental,” he says.
Texas is the No. 1 cattle and cotton state as well as a major producer of winter wheat, the dominant U.S. variety.
The 90-day forecast by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says the Southwest, the Gulf Coast, Florida, and the eastern seaboard are likely to see heavier than usual precipitation in March, April, and May, while the upper Midwest is drier than usual. For March-May, the southern Plains are likely to be cooler than usual but the northern half of the country would be warmer than usual, along with Nevada and California.
“The ongoing El Niño has likely peaked but is still strong” and likely to dissipate by late spring or early summer, said NOAA. “Odds of La Niña developing by next winter are substantial.”