Drought effects in Texas

[MaggieRae]

There's fire everywhere. I live in a wood cabin that would go up like a tinder box, so the fire is nerve-racking.
My pond is all dried up. I hate to say it, but luckily, the heron ate all my fish this past winter. Better fate for them than drying up.

The ticks are somehow doing just fine. I've had 3 in the past 2 weeks.

Horrible time. I'd say it can only get better... but, well, you know how that always goes in the movies.

 

[tball]

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dont they say your national flower is ...mildew..

 

[Katy]

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They say it's even drier now that it was in the Dust Bowl, but we farm differently now so that is helping to keep the dust storms from happening.....so far at least.

My thermometer read 112 again today....when you go out the door it feels like you'r putting your head into the oven.

 

[WyandotteTX]

Very astute observation Katy. Farming practices are much better than they were then and that is why a "dust bowl" wont happen again......The pastures here are gone, the cows have ate most all of what they can find down to the roots.
The drought here in the 50's was much worse than in the 30's. From what they are saying right now this drought is already worse than the one in the 50s that went on for almost 9 years. If you take out some of our substantial rain events that were flukes, we have most likely been in this drought for about 6 years by my guesstimation........
Katy, I thought yall were better off up there than we are down here. I know Oklahoma has gotten alot more rain than we have and I presumed that yall had too. They are shipping alot of cattle from down here up north to greener pastures but it must be a whole lot farther north I guess.
Another problem for everyone is going to be the diminished yield of corn and milo here in Texas. I dont think harvests are going to be very good at all and most of the corn will probably have aflatoxin it also......so I would prepare yourself for higher chicken feed prices also.....
I hate to say this because it will effect many people negatively along the coast but we Need a good tropical system/hurricane to come into the gulf and go right into Texas and sit on us for about a week and rain day in day out......that is what has stopped droughts in the past.....
If anyone can hang on to their cattle thru this drought they will have a valued asset on their hands with all of the herds being liquidated currently......a BIG if right now though...

 

[Katy]

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I think it was worse right here in the 50s too while not too far to the west it was worse in the 30s. That is the scary thing....most times it is a multi year event.....SW Kansas has been dry for quite some time already while we are really just in our first year of it. You don't have to go very far to our north or east and they've been getting rain.....and a lot of it sometimes.

Unfortunately since last winter we seem to have been in the donut hole as far as rain is concerned.....storms either would blow up right to our east or they come in from the west and either split and go around us or die out before they get here.

You're right we need a hurricane to come up from the south and blow the high that's setting right to our east out of there.

Right now our hope is that we can manage to hang onto at least a portion of our herd.....we're old enough (65 and 58) that if we have to sell out we probably won't rebuild our herd.

I don't think most people not involved with agriculture, or who've never dealt with a drought realize how far reaching the effects are. It is not something that we recover from overnight......and it will affect the prices at the grocery store and feed prices. Even our irrigated corn will be affected...these high of temps day after day keep it from pollinating as it should which means a lower yield at harvest. Our pivot has been running pretty much non-stop trying to save it....anybody want to pay our diesel fuel bill?

The forecast right now is for 100+ degrees for at least the next week and probably longer with basically no chance of rain. When I went to bed last night at midnight the temp was still over 90.

 

[EweSheep]

I've read somewhere the prices of beef will fall because of the overflow of cattle going for butcher. Good for the buyers but sucks for the cattle owners. Many of them got out of raising cattle, selling entire herds.

You wait until next year if it picks up, cattle prices will soar and so will the beef prices. For those who are beef lovers, better stock up your freezers now!

 

[Frost Homestead]

It hasn't rained here in soooo long. We moved into a new place last October and it has literally rained ONCE since the move. We were able to fill up the water collection tank once, but it was gone after watering the garden once. This drought is horrible, the worst I have ever seen here. They reported on the news the other day that Lake Travis is going down at 2 ft per week due to the heat and lack of rainfall. At this rate I feel like if something doesn't happen soon there's not going to be a lake! Me and some others did a little rain dance, but no luck

 

[EweSheep]

Where are you getting your water sources from? The Grand Canyon waterways? Underground sources? I owuld hate to see you all hauling in water for everything.

 

[Frost Homestead]

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if you're asking me, we have city water. we live in town, but we collect rainwater for the garden. all of this area gets water from Lake Travis, Lake Buchanan and the Edward's-Trinity Aquifer system. The aquifer is artesian and recharges itself naturally, but most of the water (75%-80%) originates from the creeks and rivers flowing in the area. We are under some water restrictions, but I'm wondering if this applies to big businesses or only residential? I see a lot of dried up lawns in the neighborhoods but in the commercial districts I see water being blown by sprinklers into the street and their grass is green as can be. I water my garden daily with the hose. I don't think the restriction apply if you're holding the hose and watering food crops....but I'm not sure.

 

[LindsayB]

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Lake travis is down 37 ft and lake buchanan is down 20 or so feet. I was looking on the texas parks and wildlife website yesterday lol. We definitely need some kind of tropical system to head our way and stall right over texas. Not a hurricane or anything, just a tropical storm or a depression. I was looking a radar a sec ago and theres a chance my area might get some rain today. Theres a good storm coming from LA.