Southeast Texas isn’t just in drought right now, we are deep in it. In fact, most of the region is classified as severe to extreme, which can lead to higher fire danger and very low water levels.
Our drought started to grow in late September, which means this is a long term drought.
Right now 83% of our area is in a severe drought (up 5% from last week) and 30% is now considered in an extreme drought (up 8% from last week).
These are not the conditions we want as we start to march toward summer… a time when drought can quickly get out of hand.
Drought feedback loop:
When temperatures run hotter, you get more evaporation, which dries out the soil even more.
And once the ground loses that moisture, more of the sun’s energy goes into heating the air instead of evaporating water. So dry ground can actually make us even hotter. That extra heat dries things out even faster… and the cycle keeps feeding itself.
This is how drought can go from bad… to worse… fast. without meaningful rainfall, this is a cycle that only gets stronger.
How are conditions looking where you live? If you’ve got low lakes or crispy grass we’d love to see it. Send in your photos to Click2Pins.