Tuesday, October 31, 2000
Rains don’t wash away
drought
By Ken Ellsworth
Reporter-News Staff Writer
Despite puddles in the street, water in
the lake, rain in the forecast and one of the wettest Octobers
in history, West Texas is still stuck in the doldrums of a drought.
“The drought didn’t start in a
day and it won’t end in a day,” said Greg Waller, a
meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Angelo.
According to the weather service, the drought
officially began in 1998 when only 13.88 inches of rain fell —
10.52 inches short of Abilene’s annual average precipitation
of 24.4 inches. Just 16.67 inches fell in 1999.
Regardless of recent rains, Abilene is still
about 3.5 inches short of normal rainfall for this date, leaving
the city nearly 22 inches short of normal precipitation for the
past three years.
Waller pointed out that few area reservoirs
have collected significant amounts of runoff and that crops and
livestock are still being negatively affected.
“A drought means that the lack of rainfall
is causing a significant negative economic impact on the area,”
he said. “So, we’re still in a drought.
“One of the considerations about drought
is whether or not you can stop your water restrictions and conservation
efforts,” he added. “But this is West Texas and that
may never happen.”
Abilene has received 7.01 inches of rain
this month, making the month the sixth-wettest October since 1895.
Waller said he is not impressed.
“All it means is that we have had a
very good month,” he said. “We just need a lot more
rain.”
That could come because forecasters are
predicting a wetter than normal winter, he said.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed,”
Waller said.
Lake Fort Phantom Hill has gained nearly
7 feet and has gone from 31 percent full to 53 percent full.
“But we’re still below normal
in the lake,” said Linda Simpson, Abilene’s assistant
director of water utilities. “The lake is 10.4 feet below
the spillway and 11 feet below the spillway is our first alert
point. So we’re just a few inches from that point.”
In fact, the city is continuing to pump
water from Hubbard Creek Reservoir.
Simpson said she has heard dozens of definitions
of what constitutes a drought, but to her it is just “when
we don’t have enough water.” That continues to be the
situation, she added.
Taylor County agricultural extension agent
Richie Griffin agreed.
“No, we’re not out of the drought.
Far from it,” he said. “We’ve gained some surface
water, but it was too late for the cotton and sorghum crops. It
should help the winter wheat if we get some more rain, but the
pastures are still hurting. In fact, we just need a whole lot
more rain.”
John W. Nielson-Gammon, a state climatologist
at Texas A&M University, said his definition of drought is
simple.
“It’s when we’ve got less
water than we need,” he said.
That, he added, is still the case. He predicted,
however, that the winter and the next several years could likely
turn out to be relatively wet.
Contact regional writer Ken
Ellsworth at 676-6777 or ellswortk@abinews.com.
Check out our Web site at www.reporternews.com
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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