Despite some decent rain last week, the Texas Water Development Board’s weekly report Monday officially listed Donley County back in droughty conditions for the first time since April 2016.
The TWDB has listed the county as “abnormally dry” during the weeks ahead of Monday’s report.
“Last week brought us a reintroduction of drought conditions in West Texas with droughty splotches appearing between Shamrock and Clarendon, between Childress and Matador, west of Lubbock and West of San Angelo,” The TWDB report said. “The hot and dry season is nearly upon us so it will be interesting to see what summer brings us.”
Officials at Greenbelt Lake, however, said they have never officially come out of the Stage Two drought condition, although the lake did come up about a foot over the winter and has remained fairly steady since that time.
“About 4½ feet are needed to really come out of drought,” said Greenbelt General Manager Bobbie Kidd. “We’re dropping a little bit now and will probably lose three to four feet over the summer.”
Nevertheless, Kidd said conditions at Greenbelt have “improved drastically” since this time a year ago, and the lake is now standing at about 53 feet. Kidd also said recreation traffic to the lake has picked up.
TWBD’s report also offers some optimism, noting that NOAA drought outlook expects the local area will be removed from drought status by the end of September.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.