Drought now as big as Texas

For the first time since June 2006, all of Texas is suffering in some stage of drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor.

Almost 10 percent of the state, including San Antonio and Austin, are classified in the “exceptional” category, the worst of five steps of dryness, and the only area of the country in such bad shape. But the drought has now expanded to include all corners of the state, just three months after more than half the state was drought-free.

In last week's report by the consortium of state and federal scientists, 3.2 percent of the state was free of drought.

The intensifying drought comes as temperatures increase and water supplies keep dwindling from usage, evaporation and lack of rain.

Unless they are fed by healthy springs, rivers across Central Texas are running at less than 25 percent of normal flows, and many have flows below 10 percent of normal, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Some Central and South Texas lakes and their conditions Thursday were: Lake Buchanan, down 15.7 feet and at 64.5 percent of capacity; Canyon Lake, down 11.9 feet and at 76.4 percent of capacity; Choke Canyon Reservoir, down 5.9 feet and 79.3 percent; Lake Corpus Christi, down 5.9 feet and 60.7 percent; Medina Lake, down 25 feet and 50.7 percent; and Lake Travis, down 27.3 feet and 61.2 percent of capacity.

As of last weekend, 73 water systems in the state had mandatory restrictions in place and another 30 had called for voluntary conservation measures, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Others are expected to follow soon.

In the San Antonio area, the Edwards Aquifer is nearing triggers for mandatory restrictions. The aquifer's level at the index well in the Alamo City on Thursday was 663.1 feet above sea level, down 0.2 feet from Wednesday.

Measures including once-a-week lawn sprinkling are triggered in San Antonio when the level falls to 660 feet.

The Edwards Aquifer Authority cuts pumping allocations 20 percent when the rolling 10-day average falls to 660 feet, triggering utility restrictions on customers across the Edwards region, from Medina to Hays counties.

The aquifer's two major springs supply the Guadalupe River, whose flow has dropped to 404 cubic feet per second, or 25 percent of normal at downstream Victoria. Upstream of the springs, at Spring Branch, the flow was 9 percent of normal.

Jerry James, environmental services director for Victoria, said the city's permit allows it to withdraw 10 percent of the flow for drinking water as long as the river's flow remains above certain levels, a level that drops as the spring and summer progresses. The city then has to draw from riverside lakes and groundwater.

“If this drought continues, we'll be going to conservation measures just like everyone else,” he said.

The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center on Thursday released the U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook through May, and it shows drought persisting across South and Central Texas and fully developing in West Texas. It predicts improving conditions in East Texas.

The latest monthly forecast for the weather phenomenon known as La Niña also was released Thursday, and climate scientists say a recent weakening of the pattern could spell an end to this cycle by June — just in time to give Texas its normal hot, dry summer. But it notes that, in the meantime, “potential impacts include below-average precipitation across the southern states.”