Are we heading into a drought? Picture 3 -- Surface area of Texas in drought by severity -- Timeline

This picture was taken from the website www.stateimpact.npr.org/texas/drought and is composed of data from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center.

Commentary:  The StateImpact website has more great pictures of the drought including the impacts of fires, square miles burned, homes destroyed and drought related deaths over a 5 year period.  Needless to say, that 2011 was a disastrous year.  They also have a Texas map of the counties and their reports for how many homes were destroyed and how many square miles were burned within each county.  There are some very interesting political implications that you can observe in each map.

Current drought conditions are diminished.  The Office of the Texas State Climatologist at A&M has an up-to-date web page for Texas data only at:  www.atmo.tamu.edu/osc/drought    As of May 28, 2013, only 3.49% of Texas was not reporting drought (percent area of Texas, not by county).  The graphic above has not changed much since the summer of 2011.

		Percent of Texas area
No Drought		3.49
Abnormally Dry		7.34
Drought - Moderate		27.93
Drought - Severe		27.89
Drought - Extreme		16.43
Drought - Exceptional		16.02