Here in Texas, especially West Texas, we're in a bad drought. Here in Angelo, we have three lakes, O.C. Fisher, Twin Buttes Reservoir, and Lake Nasworthy (Nastywater). O.C. Fisher is almost completely dry, and turned to a blood red color. Twin Buttes apparently is going down fast, and Nasworthy, is our primary recreation lake, so the city will keep pumping water into that.. But San Angelo is on less than two years of water, and we can only water once every 7 days, once every 14 starting November.
San Angelo is normally at, at least 10" of rain by August, but we're down about 7.5" of rain. Back to Twin Buttes, it's at about 6.9% capacity, Nasworthy is at 76.7%, and O.C. Fisher is less than 1%.
O.C. Fisher dam, at time of completion, it was, I think, the 3rd longest dam in North America. And was built to contain water, almost flooding the city of San Angelo. The weird thing is that the original Tom Green County seat, Ben Ficklin, TX, was destroyed by a flood, and now we're being destroyed by a drought. The sad thing is that in
my lifetime, I've seen that lake at up to 20% capacity.
San Angelo experienced 110 degrees in May.. And now we have an average temp of 87 degrees, and we've had at least 90% of our summer over 100 degrees. Just a normal summer in west Texas..
July 2011 was the warmest month ever recorded statewide for Texas, with data going back to 1895, according to preliminary records at the National Climatic Data Center. The average temperature of 87.2 degrees broke the previous record of 86.5 degrees set in 1998. The June average temperature of 85.2 was a record for that month and now ranks fifth warmest overall.
– Rainfall totals were also unusually light across the state. The July monthly total of 0.72 inches ranks third driest, surpassed by the 0.69 inches recorded in both 1980 and 2000. This is the fifth consecutive month in which precipitation totals were among the 10 driest for that month.
– Among the other rainfall records set in July: least year-to-date precipitation (6.53 inches; historical average 16.03 inches; previous record 9.36 inches in 1917); driest consecutive 8, 9 and 10 months on record (7.25 inches 8.35 inches, and 9.17 inches respectively); and driest 12 months ending in July (15.16 inches, previous record 16.46 inches in 1925).
Texas would need more than 4.5 inches of rain in the next two months to avoid breaking the 1956 record for driest 12 consecutive months, he adds.
– The most severe Texas drought overall is still the 1950-1957 drought. During the most intense year of that drought – 1956 – Texas set its all-time record for lowest 12-month precipitation, 13.69 inches ending in September.
O.C. Fisher and drought info:
http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2011/08/expert-texas-is-in-its-worst-1-year-drought-ever/Blood Red Lake:
http://www.livescience.com/15346-texas-lake-blood-red.htmlSad Historic Flood in Angelo:
http://www.familyoldphotos.com/tx/2s/san_angelo_texas_flood_august_3.htm
