Texas Drought

A drought is a prolonged period of unusually low rainfall and its severity depends on the strength and duration. Persistent high pressure in the atmosphere curbs cloud formation and leads to lower relative humidity and less precipitation. In 2011, Texas underwent the worst single-year drought in its history. During this drought, Texas saw the highest number of fires, square miles burned, homes destroyed, drought-related deaths and agricultural losses in years. This drought encouraged the state to come up with a Water Plan.

History

Texas is no stranger to drought. The seven-year drought of record in the 1950s was a turning point in Texas history that led to the formation of the Texas Water Development Board. Since then, Texas has faced several

According to Spross (2013), “The Texas drought began in 2010 and is now the third-worst the state has seen since 1895, when record-keeping first began” (para. 8). The 2011 drought exceeds the 1950-1957 drought in strength but not duration. It has also beaten the 1924-1925 drought by all measures, and is most strongly rivaled by the 1915-1918 drought. This 2011 drought is also one of two to have ever reached extreme status in all ten climate divisions of the state. Meteorologists and climatologists began to be concerned about a drought in the summer of 2010. While some parts of the state, such as East Texas, were dry during summer 2010, most of the state didn’t have problems until the beginning of 2011. The hottest statewide average temperatures for June, July and August were all in 2011. The combined June through August temperature was one of the hottest ever for any state, breaking a record

The 2012 State Water Plan was adopted by the Board on December 15, 2011, and sent to the Governor on January 5, 2012. It offers an honest assessment of the current landscape and offers a variety of solutions for dealing with the problem, focusing mainly on conservation and efficiency, but also on building new reservoirs, tapping additional sources of water underground and treating waste water. Its main message is that in serious drought conditions, Texas does not and will not have enough water to meet the needs of its people, its businesses, and its agricultural enterprises. Some of the water in the new plan is expected to come from conservation by municipal customers and farmers. Most of the water will come from what the plan calls “other surface water,” which would involve better connecting existing surface water supplies and building off-channel reservoirs. Groundwater will provide another 9 percent of Texas’ new water in the new plan, through purification, new wells, treatment plants and other strategies to maximize supply. Treating and reusing wastewater from cities makes up ten percent of the new water