For the first time in two and a half months, Thursday morning’s (11/2) drought monitor shows improvements in and around the San Antonio area! We still have a long way to go, though, as we try to chip away at this prolonged drought.
KEY POINTS
- It’s been over 780 days since all of South Central Texas was last considered drought-free.
- We’ve fluctuated between the different classifications of drought within that timeframe, but a relatively dry summer sent the entirety of Bexar County back into exceptional drought (the worst category) in August.
- With late October rains, however, the exceptional drought has now been erased from parts of Bexar County, the Hill Country, and the I-35 corridor.
- Drought still remains in place across the majority of the area (just not as bad), meaning we still have a long way to go!
LATEST DROUGHT MONITOR (RELEASED 11/2)
While exceptional drought (shown below in maroon) had been in place across portions of the Hill Country for quite some time, a drier-than-average summer caused it to expand into Bexar County and much of the I-35 corridor in August.
That was still the theme around mid-October, but recent rains leading up to Halloween managed to bring some improvements just in time to kick off the month of November.
As of the latest update released on November 2, exceptional drought has been erased from parts of Bexar County, as well as the Hill Country and I-35 corridor. Extreme drought (level 3/4) now replaces that in most of these areas (shown below in red).
A pocket of exceptional drought is still noted in far western Bexar, eastern Medina and northern Atascosa counties.
Drought is still very much present (just not at the most intense level) across the majority of the area, so we still have a long way to go!
Here’s the comparison of the past two weeks for reference:
OCTOBER RAINFALL
While still technically drier than average, October did bring beneficial rainfall to the Alamo City.
Over 3.2 inches of rain fell throughout the month, with 1.76 inches noted in just the last week. This stretch of rain helped lead to these latest drought improvements!
As mentioned above, we still have a long way to go in order to alleviate the existing drought still in place.
Only two months (October 2021 and April 2023) over the past two years were considered wetter than average. This lack of rainfall dug us into a deep hole that we’re still trying to climb our way out of.
Looking ahead to the next seven days, a relatively calmer weather pattern takes over, unfortunately, meaning no significant chances for rain. We’ll keep eyes on it!
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