Drought pressure is building across Texoma, with Cooke County under moderate drought, nearby Oklahoma counties in worse shape and local restrictions already affecting outdoor burning and water use, according to federal, state and county records current this week. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, valid Aug. 18, placed all of Cooke County in moderate drought, while Carter County, Oklahoma, was entirely in severe drought or worse and more than a third of Marshall County, Oklahoma, near Lake Texoma, was in severe drought or worse.
The difference matters locally because Cooke and Grayson counties sit close to the harder-hit Oklahoma side of the region. The same federal map showed Grayson County mostly in moderate drought, with no severe drought recorded there. Cooke County also had no severe drought on the Aug. 18 map.
Rainfall records help explain the spread of dry conditions. NOAA daily summaries show the Wilson 14.1 S reporting station in Oklahoma recorded no rain from Aug. 1 through Aug. 17. The Fairview 1.5 ESE station in Texas also reported no rain on each of those days. At Wilson, no day during that stretch reached a quarter-inch of rain, according to NOAA.
Water-use limits have appeared nearby. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s self-reported list of public water systems limiting use to avoid shortages included Grayson County systems Marilee Elmont and the City of Gunter under M1 restrictions as of July 30. Mustang Special Utility District, which serves Denton, Collin and Grayson counties, also reported M1 restrictions as of that date, according to TCEQ.
Cooke County’s official website said the county was under a burn ban as of Monday, Aug. 10, with outdoor burning prohibited. Grayson County’s Fire Marshal page says that county approves a burn ban when drought conditions create an imminent wildfire threat, and bars open flames, sparks and embers during such bans.
Lake Texoma remains nearly full, but the reservoir record shows the lake slipping during the dry stretch. Water Data for Texas showed Lake Texoma fell from full storage on July 21 to just under full on Aug. 21, while its mean water level dropped from 618.57 feet to 616.87 feet. Its surface area also fell over the month, from 82,267 acres to 75,421 acres.
Compared with several North Texas reservoirs, Texoma was still holding up better on Aug. 21. Water Data for Texas listed Ray Roberts at 97.1% full, Lavon at 89.2% and Lake Arrowhead at 74.8%. Lavon’s decline over the same month was sharper than Texoma’s, while Lake Arrowhead was more than four feet below conservation pool, according to state reservoir records.
The broader drought picture is worse north of the Red River. U.S. Drought Monitor state data for Aug. 18 showed about 62% of Oklahoma in severe drought or worse, compared with about 14% of Texas. The contiguous United States was about 30% in severe drought or worse on the same map.
The U.S. Drought Monitor’s Aug. 20 national summary said high pressure over the southern United States limited rainfall over the southern Great Plains and lower Mississippi Valley. The same summary said drought continued across the South and that flash drought had contributed to dry ponds and creeks and poor crop conditions in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Forecast guidance offered limited near-term relief for North Texas. The National Weather Service office in Norman said Aug. 21 that scattered storms would bring light totals and little help for ongoing drought, and warned that a hot, dry pattern would raise fire-weather concerns across western Oklahoma and western North Texas late in the weekend into early next week. The Climate Prediction Center’s Aug. 20 outlook kept North Texas in above-normal temperature odds with near-median precipitation for late August into early September.
_Editor's note: Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law._
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