Finally! - Rain!

[livi]

You could have 95% of our rain. Would still be too much left here..

[David]

And... it's gone

[Scuba Steve]

Glad to hear that TX got at least SOME rain. My parents live in Hays County and from the pictures they've sent, it looks like winter over there. Everything is yellow. They live on acreage and the grass in the back yard has been dead so long that it's crumbled into dirt. This summer they had to start watering the trees to try and keep them alive, and these are oaks and elms that are decades old.

[74-911]

Originally Posted by Scuba Steve

Glad to hear that TX got at least SOME rain. My parents live in Hays County and from the pictures they've sent, it looks like winter over there. Everything is yellow.

Last weekend we drove from Corpus Christi area to Houston to Abilene and back to Corpus area. Every stock tank we could see from the road was dry and saw many areas where brush fires along the roads and in pastures had been put out. Saw absolutely no grazing for cattle, everything looks like it normally does in the middle of February.

The only thing that will remedy the above is rainfall of tropical storm proportions and that season is now over. If this drought persists through the winter (as some predict) more than a few towns and cities are going to see severe water rationing and worse.

In 1997 the TX legislature passed a master water plan for the state which was intended to address TX H20 problems for the 21st century. This was deemed critical at the time because of the projected population growth and lessons learned from the historic drought of the 1950's.

Any more comments on this will get it kicked into PARF...

[masraum]

Originally Posted by David

And... it's gone

Yep, but it's a beautiful day and our weather is supposed to be cool and nice for the next several days (like Cali only more humid).

[mattdavis11]

Jack, you only added facts to a thread my friend. I'll add a little more info that shouldn't move this to PARF, it is not debatable.

97 was my first year fully engaged in the legislature, I remember that fight well. For those that don't know, water is the biggest fight in the legislature, not redistricting, or the budget, but water.

East Texas will not let it go, so inter-basin transfers do not happen. You have to buy the water rights, and it's always a Jr.

I quit lobbying shortly after we killed a bill which would have allowed for transfer of down stream flow belonging to the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) to the San Antonio Water System (SAWS). The vote was 71-74.

Morally, I couldn't do it anymore. The people of San Antonio needed the water, now the whole state does.

[74-911]

Originally Posted by mattdavis11

Jack, you only added facts to a thread my friend. I'll add a little more info that shouldn't move this to PARF, it is not debatable.

Matt, you are absolutely correct, H20 is TX Achilles Heel and always will be. I well remember the great drought of the 50's growing up in the Abilene area. Most of the farmers (including my grandparents) would have lost their farms back then were it not for the construction of IH20 and Dyess AFB - few if any crops were produced for 5 years so many farmers went to work building the interstate and AFB and their wives got any job they could.

I lived in San Antonio for 35 years and am all to familiar with the continuing battles SA has had over the aquifer (one in particular is the group that more or less extorted $4M from the Bexar county water system over an artesian well).

As you well know, surface water rights are strictly controlled in TX while ground water rights are a free for all and are probably impossible to control given the historical context. Not long ago T. Boone Pickens was buying up water rights in the panhandle so he cold sell it the metro areas.

Perhaps if our legislature/governors had actually pushed to fund any of the measures in the 1997 water master plan things might be a little different.

The most sobering thought about another prolonged drought? TX population is the 50's was around 7M, I think it's about 4 times that now and growing.

[mattdavis11]

It's closer to 5 times larger now. Just curious, how are the in-stream flows into the bays and estuaries? Right of capture won't disappear, neither will Sr. water rights.

[74-911]

Originally Posted by mattdavis11

It's closer to 5 times larger now. Just curious, how are the in-stream flows into the bays and estuaries? Right of capture won't disappear, neither will Sr. water rights.

Unfortunately, instream flows to the bays and estuaries are close to non-existent.

[Tobra]

And yet, no rain in Cut'n'Shoot

[jyl]

Raining here. Rained through July (3/4 in on 7/23!), stopped for August and part of September, but has rained more days than not since the last week of September started. That's a summer of, oh, 7 weeks. The weather keeps getting weirder here, the "old timers" tell me. Of course, it is also a La Nina year, which is supposed to mean dry winters in TX and colder, wetter winters in the PNW.

[red-beard]

Yep

[masraum]

Woo Hoo, rain the last 2 days. I got a bit over 1/4" yesterday and have had almost an inch today!

My mom who lives in Vero Beach, FL and had a drought that ended in July, I think is really out of the drought now. She got 7.5" yesterday and has had another inch so far today.

[porsche4life]

We've gotten almost 2" in the last two days. 2 very much needed inches.

[masraum]

Yeah. We're up to 1.5" at my house for the day, and it's still coming down.

[red-beard]

We're over 2" here and I expect 3" by the time the storm is over. Wow!

[red-beard]

[red-beard]

[mattdavis11]

Perfect storm. What a blessing.

[azasadny]

I'm glad you folks are getting your much-needed rain!