Critical drought conditions hit the Hill Country

2 Critical drought conditions hit the Hill Country

High temperatures and dry conditions resulted in months of drought this year, concerning conservation agencies, water utility companies and water users throughout the Hill Country.

Such conditions began to demand notice in the early spring after a lack of sustained and heavy precipitation over the winter months which dried out vegetation and soil. The Hays County Commissioners Court reinstated a county-wide burn ban at the beginning of February, prohibiting all burning not under special permit from the fire marshal. As of March 30, over 90% of Hays County was categorized as “abnormally dry,” according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. In addition, over 66% of Hays County was deemed to be in “moderate drought” and almost 32% in “severe drought,'' according to the NIDIS.

Little relief was found moving into the summer months, and central Texas experienced its hottest June on record, according to meteorologists in Austin and San Antonio. Both cities experienced well over a dozen triple digit days, with Austin-Mabry recording 20, Austin-Airport recording 15 and San Antonio recording 17. In the Hill Country, temperatures were slightly lower, but not by much: Dripping Springs experienced 13 triple-digit days in June, according to weather data from the San Antonio International Airport.

Local weather reporter Ray Schiflett attributed the slight difference in temperatures to Dripping Springs’ more rural environment.

“We’re always cooler than Austin because they’re sitting in a bunch of concrete,” Schiflett said, who is based out of Driftwood. “They’re always three to four degrees hotter, so they typically record more 100-degree (and above) days than we do.

Now, if you were to ask how many 97 degree days and above we experience, we’d probably match [Austin] pretty closely.”

Austin and Dripping Springs both continued to experience triple-digit days well into the beginning of July, each reaching highs over 105 degrees.

Temperatures in Austin reached 110 on Sunday, July 10, tying for the hottest July day in recorded history for the city, as reported by meteorologist Hunter Williams, KVUE.

Meanwhile, parts of Dripping Springs reached 106 degrees on Monday, July 11, according to weather data from the San Antonio International Airport.

“I’ve been recording weather since 1988,” Schiflett said. “And this is one of the hottest, if not the hottest, summers I’ve seen.

2011 was the hottest on record, with about 50 days of 100 degrees or hotter; I wouldn’t be surprised if we got similar numbers by Sept. 1.”

Schiflett said the high temperatures themselves were caused by a high pressure dome over much of Texas, preventing the accumulation of significant rainfall across much of the state.

“There is usually, in the summertime, a big, highpressure dome that sits up through east and central Texas,” Schiflett explained.

“It normally centers over Mississippi and Georgia; now, it’s more over us, expanding westward. Right now, it’s 1500 miles wide, so what usually is just a couple hundred miles of severe heat has become significantly more intense.”

As for the reason for the shift, Schiflett said he could only speculate. He did, however, attribute much of the unusual weather to the El Niño/La Niña phenomena — climate patterns that disrupt typical, seasonal weather conditions.

Currently, La Niña conditions are ongoing, resulting in warmer and drier weather for Texas.

With high temperatures and little rainfall to cool things off, many expressed concerns about water and electricity usage.

The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District issued a critical drought status on Wednesday, July 6, for northern Hays County.

Meanwhile, the West Travis County Public Utility Agency and the Dripping Springs Water Supply Corporation remained in Stage 3 Drought water conservation from mid June through the end of August.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages about 90 percent of the state’s electric load, requested that customers limit electricity usage on Monday, June 11, as temperatures were expected to hit well over 100 degrees.

The demand for electricity in Texas peaked on Monday at 4:50 p.m. at 78,379 MW, according to ERCOT’s website. At that time, the committed capacity — the amount of power available from online generating units — was 84,231 MW.

Although the demand at 2 p.m. (76,499 MW) came close to the supply at that time (79,990 MW), operating reserves remained well above the 1,430 MW mark — at which point rolling blackouts would have been required, according to agency policy.

Although the power grid managed to remain intact throughout the summer months, concerns over long-term water shortages remained — especially with regard to groundwater.

The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District hosted a town hall meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 7, to discuss impacts of and responses to the ongoing Hill Country drought.

“The rain we’ve had recently has helped — we received four inches of rain in August alone — but we’re still far behind where we should be at this point in the year,” said Robin Gary, managing director of the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association.

“The total rainfall for 2022 in this area is around 11 to 12 inches. We should be at 22 inches or more.”

Although different areas of Hays County, as well as the Hill Country, have different drought triggers (factors that determine whether or not a certain area is in drought), everyone is currently in drought, Gary said.

“We’re a groundwaterdependent group of people, and the areas that provide recharge [to our depleted groundwater] out west are still all in exceptional drought,” Gary said. “That influences how much recharge we can get into our aquifers.”

Issues that arise as a result of drought are not likely to go away anytime soon, Wimberley Water Supply Corporation’s Garrett Allen added.

“If you look back 20 years, you can see that well levels have gotten lower and lower,” he explained. “One year, you might go into a Stage 1 or Stage 2 drought, and then, it starts raining, and you come back out of it. But the water level never goes back up to what it was.

And so when you see that continue to happen, year after year, you’re never going back to where you were; the overall levels just keep decreasing.”

Allen said he believes that voluntary water conservation stages should be a thing of the past.

Common sense (avoiding unnecessary water use) should be encouraged yearround, not just in times of drought, he explained.

Both the West Travis County Public Utility Agency and the Dripping Springs Water Supply Corporation have remained in various stages of water conservation since September. This is likely to continue through the winter months, as drought and wildfire risks are expected to continue in western states — including Texas — according to reports put out by federal weather officials in late October.

Weather pattern La Niña has since returned for a third winter — a phenomenon which is rarely seen. That means December, January and February are likely to bring drier than average conditions for most parts of Texas, according to officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The burn ban is currently off in Hays County. For more information, visit hayscountytx.com/ lawenforcement/ fire-marshal.