Lack of expected rainfall from El Niño has the Lone Star State once again facing dry conditions.
Although drought levels remain non-existent, thanks to the record amounts of rainfall the state saw toward the end of 2015, dry conditions are creeping back in.
This time last year, 39 percent of the state was experiencing drought conditions, according to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB).
Research conducted by the Austin American-Statesman said last week, Feb. 7-13, just over 2 percent of the state was considered “abnormally dry.”
As for this week, “a continued lack of rain has greatly increased abnormally dry conditions to 12 percent of the state. We’re not quite back into drought yet, but without rainfall, we’re trending that way,” TWDB reported.
Central Texas was well above the average rainfall, so this dry stretch could be El Niño’s natural correction to itself, Larry Hopper, a weather service official, told the Statesman.