Texas

Fall Won’t Fix Texas Drought Damage
Associated Press, September 16, 2000

Dried-up ponds and fast-growing fires. Overworked lawn sprinklers and scorched crops. Legions of grasshoppers and warped house foundations. Products of the relentless drought and heat wave are multiplying in Texas, and the arrival of fall might not change things much. Shorter days, longer nights and cooler temperatures will come, forecasters say, but the bone-dry conditions of this scorching summer aren't likely to leave. "We're moving into fall. And it won't be as warm as it was in the summer,'' said Skip Ely, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “But it is not at all clear that we're going to be moving into wetter weather.” The drought has caused about $595 million in crop losses, according to the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, and 178 counties have been declared federal agricultural disaster areas. The Extension Service attributes $192 million in crop losses to grasshoppers, plant-eating pests that have thrived in this summer. “Grasshoppers love this heat,” said Beverly Boyd, spokeswoman for the state's agriculture department.

North Texas was rainless for the 77th day Friday, far surpassing the previous no-rain record of 59 days originally set in 1934 and matched in 1950. A total of 268 public water systems in 82 counties statewide have implemented some sort of water restrictions. Because of the wildfire threat, bans on outdoor burning remain in effect for 186 counties. “Our big concern right now is that the weather is cooler, humidity is up and some people want to burn off brush or trash, or are outside camping or using four-wheelers,” Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Bowen said Friday. Heavy rains last week did stop fires in southeast Texas, but Bowen said the northeastern quadrant of the state remains tinder dry.