The drought the Texas Panhandle has seen over the past three years may be worse than any other three-year period on record for the region, according to State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon.
Nielsen-Gammon told the Amarillo Globe-News the past three years have been drier than the area’s previous record, which was 1954-1956, by three inches of precipitation.
Although the streak beats the previous record, on a broader scale, experts say this drought hasn’t matched the drought of the ’50s because the current drought started more intensely but has run over a shorter period of time.
The story cites that over the past three years the Panhandle has received 34.5 inches of rain, which is well below the normal total of just over 60 inches.