Drought in the Lone Star State

摘要

Last year, Texas experienced what has been widely characterized as the worst 1 -year drought in the state's history. According to state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, a record-dry March 2011 brought widespread extreme drought conditions to the state, and the period from October 2010 to September 2011 was the driest 12 months on record. Heat and resulting evaporation from record warm weather during the summer further depleted streamflow and reservoir levels. Water use data for 2011 from the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA; Austin, Texas) revealed that lakes Buchanan and Travis, the water supply reservoirs for central Texas, dropped to their third-lowest levels on record.