Drought

Feather Wilson

We are not supposed to be in another drought but Mother Nature doesn't care what we think.

Bandera County has only had 0.19 inches of rainfall for the entire month of June. The average rainfall for June is 4.29 inches of rainfall.

It has been raining north, south, east and west, but not in Bandera County.

The county suffered only 0.27 inches of rainfall during the month of April. The average rainfall for April is 2.69 inches.

Up to last week in June, the average rainfall for Bandera County is 17.23 inches of rainfall and for the last week of July we should have reached almost 20 inches. We now stand at 14.87 inches.

That sounds like a drought to most folks.

NOAA states that La Niña has disappeared, which often brings a drought to the Texas Hill Country.

NOAA also predicts rainfall will be normal for Texas this year. It will be overly hot with normal rainfall.

A Gulf of Mexico storm would help pull us out of this drought or a stray shower.

The grass started growing well in May and just stopped in June. The trees are once again being stressed this summer, just as they were trying to recover from 2011.

The attached chart depicts the rainfall for Bandera County this year. The darker gray is the six month 2012 rainfall total and the lighter gray is the long term monthly average.

It is obvious we had four good months and two bad months. The average is still about 14 percent below normal due to April and June.

If the rest of the summer is going to follow June's averages we are going to be in real drought territory and real trouble.

Some of the younger trees around your house will need periodic watering and you just can hope for the best for the big older and wiser trees.

Range grasses have still not recovered 2011 and it will take another one or two growing seasons with average rainfall to replace the bare ground with seeds and water.

Keep your fingers and toes crosssed.