STATE CLIMATOLOGIST DECLARES THE WORST DROUGHT IN 60 YEARS IS OVER

With the spring and summer rains that have deluged much of Texas this year, including the Brazos River basin, the long-term drought that has scorched Texas for years is finally over.

By the first of July, the Brazos River Authority had managed more than 50 consecutive days of water releases from BRA reservoirs. While that may seem like a lot, it’s not even close to a record according to Brad Brunett, BRA water services manager.

“This might seem like a record since it has been so dry for so long, but in fact, it is far from record levels,” Brunett said. “In the fairly recent past, we released water from Lake Granbury for 68 days straight in 2010 with the lake staying full, and in 2007, we released for 136 days straight with a full lake. The all-time record was from May 21, 1991, through September 29, 1992, when we released over 4 million acre-feet of water continuously for almost 500 days straight with the lake staying full.”

Statewide, Texas is enjoying the end of the drought in every region.

State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, whose office is based at Texas A&M University, reports that only one section of the Lone Star State is currently experiencing drought conditions.

“At the moment, the drought is over everywhere but in a corner of the northwestern Texas Panhandle,” he said in early July. “This means that Texas has received enough rainfall that soil moisture is near or above normal and streams are flowing at least normally. It doesn't mean that all reservoirs are back up to normal levels … there are still some unusually low reservoir levels, especially in west-central Texas.”

While the current drought had a greater impact in some areas than the drought of the 1950s, the earlier event had a more far-reaching impact, Nielsen-Gammon said.

“On a statewide basis, the 1950s drought was worse,” he said. “It was about as intense as the recent drought and lasted a couple of years longer. Drought conditions are not uniform and don't impact all aspects of society equally, so for some places and sectors, I would expect that the recent drought might have been worse than the 1950s drought.”

Just four years ago, with Texas scorched by persistent dry conditions, then Gov. Rick Perry issued a proclamation asking Texans to pray for rain.

These days, as hard as it might have been to believe even a couple of months ago, Texans are finding that there really can be too much of a good thing.

In 2011, one rancher in Fort Bend County, lamenting the seemingly endless drought, told a local newspaper that a hurricane, or at least a tropical storm, would be welcome.

These days, that kind of talk is a distant memory.

Although drought conditions have been alleviated throughout Texas, Nielsen-Gammon cautioned people not to stop water conservation efforts.

“For indoor water use, don't lose the good habits you developed during the times of water shortage,” he said. “For outdoor use, restore your garden with the type of plants that did fine with less water than normal.”

So what is in store for Texas’ future?

“The summer is always hard to pin down, but the persisting El Nino conditions strongly favor a wet fall and winter,” Nielsen-Gammon said. “Beyond that, we'll have to wait and see. The long-term ocean patterns are favorable for rainfall right now, but it's too soon to tell whether that's temporary or long-term.

“Streams and reservoirs have recovered in the Brazos River basin,” Neilsen-Gammon continued. “I can't be that precise about the forecast, except to say that the farther north you go, the smaller the average impact of El Nino.

“So far this spring, Texas has broken its all-time (since 1895) records for wettest month, wettest two months, wettest three months, and wettest four months.”

While the drought is now just a memory, the state’s planners know that they must prepare for whatever the future holds.

“I think it will be a long time before (water) professionals forget about the drought,” Bill Mullican, a former administrator with the Texas Water Development Board, told the Austin American-Statesman. Mullican recently helped write legislation that removes hurdles to building aquifer storage and pumping facilities. “I think the drought is going to have a significant effect on our long-term planning.”

That planning is underway, and will go a long way toward determining how water needs are met in the future.

While a variety of options are being considered, there’s not a single solution to meeting Texas’ water needs, according to Amy Hardberger, a water law attorney and hydrologist.

“We need to be wary of something being a silver bullet,” she told the Statesman. “There’s just not going to be one for water.”