Posted 12:59 am Monday, August 29, 2011
Historic Texas Droughts Remembered
By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer
Appeals to a higher power for rain can be heard inside civic and religious gatherings across East Texas.
Vacant curses aimed at the mid-morning sun and the 100-plus degree days it propels can be heard along sidewalks and just outside restaurants.
Staff Writer
Appeals to a higher power for rain can be heard inside civic and religious gatherings across East Texas.
Vacant curses aimed at the mid-morning sun and the 100-plus degree days it propels can be heard along sidewalks and just outside restaurants.
There is no universally prescribed definition for drought. Loosely defined — it’s hot. It’s dry. It depletes water sources, costs businesses and causes general suffering among the masses.
Drought conditions and heat rarely grip East Texas as severely as it has in 2011. East Texas dipped below 75 percent of normal precipitation, which arbitrarily defines drought conditions according to the Texas Almanac, less than a dozen years since 1900.
The region dipped below 65 percent of normal precipitation only once during that time, in 1917, and suffered back-to-back years of sub-75 percent rainfall three times.
State climatologist John Nielson-Gammon said 2011 qualifies as a significant drought in every aspect, whether based on temperatures, lack of precipitation or socioeconomic impact. Three other year-long droughts reached similar levels of severity this century, he said.
Droughts in 1918 and 1925 were exceptional but were “no comparison,” to 1956 with regard to lack of precipitation.
Despite record-breaking heat this year and economic losses in the billions of dollars, Nielson-Gammon said, 1956 was worse.
From October 1955 to October 1956, 19.65 inches of rain fell in the Tyler area compared to the 21.85 inches of rain since October 2010. Normal annual rainfall for East Texas this century was between 44 inches and 48 inches.
“1956 would take the cake as the worst,” he said.
Nielson-Gammon assessed the ’56 drought as “worst” because East Texas and most of the state had experienced five prior years of drought conditions. Reservoir and well-water levels were already low, he said, which magnified historically low precipitation levels that year.
Temperatures in 2011, however, eclipsed the 1956 summer temperature averages by almost 5 degrees, he said. July temperatures averaged 103 degrees versus 98.4 degrees in July 1956. This June and July averaged the hottest temperatures on record, he said. August is on track to set a new record for the month, he said.
Tyler set three significant temperature records, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Ken Falk.
Temperatures reached 100 degrees for 46 days straight and would be at 59 and counting if Aug. 13 hadn’t snapped the streak with a 97 degree day. The hot streak began June 28 and ended Aug. 12.
Tyler has experienced 70 days of 100 degrees or more, which trounces the old record of 47. Falk said 25 of those days were 105 degrees or more, also a record.
Recorded temperatures date back to 1883, he said.
High temperatures means more evaporation and stress on plants and trees and make a case for this drought’s severity, even if it just in roasted resident’s minds.
“It’s been dry but the longer you go with these temperatures the dryer it seems,” Nielson-Gammon said.
Sporadic rains, such as the one Wednesday evening in Tyler bring a fleeting, false reprieve. Dry air and heat drenched Earth devours every drop quickly.
The stress of ready-bake temperatures and rainless weeks is mounting. Fires, burn bans, dying trees and livestock-sell-offs plague East Texas.
More than 50 fires resulted from lightning strikes as brief storms moved through the region Wednesday. A 20,000 acre fire scorched parts of Polk and Trinity counties, something Texas Forestry Service arborist and forester Daniel Duncum said could be an indication of a “California-type” wildfires happening in the Piney Woods.
East Texas counties are among 251 of 254 under burn bans state-wide.
Duncum said foresters have yet to determine potential tree losses in rural and urban areas but acknowledged many trees were “browning out.” He said the early turn could mean trees are dying or going dormant but the full extent won’t be known until spring.
Loggers and landowners are losing money, he said. Tests of freshly cut pine trees showed moisture levels at 12 percent, he said, according to recent reports from loggers at a mill around Gilmer. Trees pay by weight and moisture means money in the industry.
Ranchers are selling livestock earlier and more often because they lack water and winter forage. Crop and livestock losses have already exceeded the previous single-year record of $4.1 billion set in 2006, said David Anderson, an economist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service. By year’s end, losses could double the 2006 record, he said.
The weather pattern, “La Nina,” is to blame. While “El Nino,” which was a fixture on East Texas weather radars throughout the late-‘80s and 1990s, brings water, La Nina, pushes rainclouds north.
While East Texas needs weeks of sustained rainfall to remedy its 18 inch-below-average level, Nielson-Gammon predicts more of the same.
“If the patterns continue forming in the Pacific as they appear to be, there’s really no end in sight,” he said.
Droughts in 1918 and 1925 were exceptional but were “no comparison,” to 1956 with regard to lack of precipitation.
Despite record-breaking heat this year and economic losses in the billions of dollars, Nielson-Gammon said, 1956 was worse.
From October 1955 to October 1956, 19.65 inches of rain fell in the Tyler area compared to the 21.85 inches of rain since October 2010. Normal annual rainfall for East Texas this century was between 44 inches and 48 inches.
“1956 would take the cake as the worst,” he said.
Nielson-Gammon assessed the ’56 drought as “worst” because East Texas and most of the state had experienced five prior years of drought conditions. Reservoir and well-water levels were already low, he said, which magnified historically low precipitation levels that year.
Temperatures in 2011, however, eclipsed the 1956 summer temperature averages by almost 5 degrees, he said. July temperatures averaged 103 degrees versus 98.4 degrees in July 1956. This June and July averaged the hottest temperatures on record, he said. August is on track to set a new record for the month, he said.
Tyler set three significant temperature records, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Ken Falk.
Temperatures reached 100 degrees for 46 days straight and would be at 59 and counting if Aug. 13 hadn’t snapped the streak with a 97 degree day. The hot streak began June 28 and ended Aug. 12.
Tyler has experienced 70 days of 100 degrees or more, which trounces the old record of 47. Falk said 25 of those days were 105 degrees or more, also a record.
Recorded temperatures date back to 1883, he said.
High temperatures means more evaporation and stress on plants and trees and make a case for this drought’s severity, even if it just in roasted resident’s minds.
“It’s been dry but the longer you go with these temperatures the dryer it seems,” Nielson-Gammon said.
Sporadic rains, such as the one Wednesday evening in Tyler bring a fleeting, false reprieve. Dry air and heat drenched Earth devours every drop quickly.
The stress of ready-bake temperatures and rainless weeks is mounting. Fires, burn bans, dying trees and livestock-sell-offs plague East Texas.
More than 50 fires resulted from lightning strikes as brief storms moved through the region Wednesday. A 20,000 acre fire scorched parts of Polk and Trinity counties, something Texas Forestry Service arborist and forester Daniel Duncum said could be an indication of a “California-type” wildfires happening in the Piney Woods.
East Texas counties are among 251 of 254 under burn bans state-wide.
Duncum said foresters have yet to determine potential tree losses in rural and urban areas but acknowledged many trees were “browning out.” He said the early turn could mean trees are dying or going dormant but the full extent won’t be known until spring.
Loggers and landowners are losing money, he said. Tests of freshly cut pine trees showed moisture levels at 12 percent, he said, according to recent reports from loggers at a mill around Gilmer. Trees pay by weight and moisture means money in the industry.
Ranchers are selling livestock earlier and more often because they lack water and winter forage. Crop and livestock losses have already exceeded the previous single-year record of $4.1 billion set in 2006, said David Anderson, an economist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service. By year’s end, losses could double the 2006 record, he said.
The weather pattern, “La Nina,” is to blame. While “El Nino,” which was a fixture on East Texas weather radars throughout the late-‘80s and 1990s, brings water, La Nina, pushes rainclouds north.
While East Texas needs weeks of sustained rainfall to remedy its 18 inch-below-average level, Nielson-Gammon predicts more of the same.
“If the patterns continue forming in the Pacific as they appear to be, there’s really no end in sight,” he said.
