Bay Area Edition | September 2022

HOT & DRY While drought conditions are easing up nationwide, Texas is still seeing extreme levels of dryness. At the height of the drought in August, large portions of the state were in the most extreme version of drought.

residents are listening and adapting, Hooks said. “I think water conservation culture today versus 2011 is much stronger,” Hooks said. CLCWA board President John Branch echoed Hooks. While Houston had to enact its plan, the CLCWA did not, in part due to water conservation eorts from residents and the fact that new houses in the area have low-ush toilets and other water-saving infrastructure. “We never even got close to what our capacity is for our system,” he said. One factor that can contribute to whether a city activates its drought contingency plan is ground cracking. The more extreme a drought, the more earth retracts and shifts, which can break water mains, according to o- cials from various cities. During a normal week, the CLCWA might see three water line breaks a week. During the drought, it got up to three a day, resulting in the CLCWA spending about $350,000 more than normal on repairs, Branch said. Ending the drought In mid-August, the southeast Hous- ton area started seeing more heavy rain, which began to push the area out of drought. For the rest of 2022, the outlook calls for abnormally high temperatures and dryness to continue, Nielsen-Gam- mon said. October tends to be a wetter month, historically, which could bring more relief, though he said the odds favor dry conditions, he said. It is possible a single heavy rainfall could bring the area out of a drought, but that would likely result in ooding due to the fact that dry earth absorbs water slower than moist earth. The ideal way to get out of a drought is weeks of above-average rainfall to not only meet norms, but also exceed them to make up for the months of lackluster precipitation, and that is what has happened. Galveston County received 3.92 inches more rain than normal Aug. 16 through Sept. 13, Fowler said. “We’re still slightly on the drier side, … but we’re no longer in the extreme impacts from the drought,” he said. The Bay Area has not seen much ooding due to sudden rain. League City has seen minimal street ooding but has been lucky, Hooks said. “From a utility standpoint, weath- er’s everything,” he said. “We could roll right back into a dry cycle.” This winter is expected to be warmer and dryer than normal, so it is possible

As of Sept. 13

As of Aug. 22

Harris & Galveston Counties

SOURCE: U.S. DROUGHT MONITOR COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

5 levels OF DROUGHT Drought severity is measured on a ve-level system.

only to 2011, the last major drought year on record—at an average of 84.6 degrees, according to National Weather Service data. The records are similar for Hous- ton. June through August was the sec- ond-hottest period since 1889 at an average of 86.6 degrees. June through August 2011 ranked rst at 87.9 degrees. “Just the fact that it’s been so warm has really fast-forwarded the drought process,” Fowler said. Contingency plans Houston, Pearland and Manvel are some of the nearby cities that activated at least the voluntary stages of their state-mandated drought contingency plans, which aim to limit water use during emergencies. However, due to water conservation and other eorts, Clear Lake, residents of which get their water from the Clear Lake City Water Authority, and League City did not have to activate their plans. Jody Hooks, the public works direc- tor of League City, said a combination of investment in water infrastructure and working with homeowners associ- ations and residents to promote water conservation allowed the city to avoid enacting its drought contingency plan. Prior to 2011, about 75% of the city’s leaks came from old water lines, which are most vulnerable to breaking during droughts. The city’s water line replace- ment program, which began around 2013 and has cost the city about $2 million annually, has made the system more robust, Hooks said. Additionally, the city has been push- ing the message of water conservation since the 2011 drought, and HOAs and

CONTINUED FROM 1

Other concerns include droughts and high temperatures possibly becom- ing more common or dry conditions returning for the remainder of the year. “Climate change may be making the dierence between 101 and 103 [degrees] on a particular day,” Niel- Galveston County entered extreme drought, the second-highest of the Drought Monitor’s ve drought tiers, on June 14. Harris County has varied between severe and extreme drought, according to Drought Monitor data. As of mid-September, Harris Coun- ty’s drought was mostly gone. Most of Galveston County remained in moder- ate drought. sen-Gammon said. Double whammy Contributing to the drought are the weather patterns seen in the Pacic Ocean, Fowler said. When the ocean’s surface water temperatures are warmer, it is con- sidered in El Niño, and Texas is more likely to get rain. When the waters are cool, it is considered in La Niña, result- ing in drier conditions. The ocean has been in La Niña for three years, Fowler said. As of Sept. 15, most of Harris and Galveston counties had seen up to 12 fewer inches of rain than normal since Jan. 1. On top of that, the Greater Hous- ton area experienced one of its hottest summers on record, Fowler said. June through August was the sec- ond-hottest three-month period for League City since at least 1997— tying with 2018 and coming second

Abnormally dry

• Producers begin supplemental feeding for livestock. • Planting is postponed. • Grass res increase. • Surface water levels decline. Moderate drought • Dryland crops are stunted. • Wildre frequency increases. • Stock tanks, creeks and streams are low. • Voluntary water restrictions are requested. Severe drought • Pasture conditions are very poor. • Crop yields decrease. • Wildlife moves into populated areas. • Wildre danger is severe. • Burn bans are implemented. • Mandatory water restrictions are implemented.

Extreme drought

• Soil has large cracks; soil moisture is very low. • Crops fail to germinate; yields decrease for irrigated crops. • Supplemental feeding for livestock and herds are sold.

Exceptional drought

• Exceptional and widespread crop loss is reported. • Seafood, tourism and agricultural sectors report nancial losses. • Sensitivity to re danger increases.

COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM