Some Areas are Now Drought Free

After spending most of 2011 in an extreme to exceptional drought, parts of Deep East Texas are now drought free as a result of the recent heavy rainfall in the Piney Woods.This image above shows the current state of the drought. The shading of dark brown represents where we still have a "D1 Moderate" drought in place. This is an improvement and an upgrade from the "D2 Severe" drought status from a couple weeks ago.

The areas west and east of the Moderate drought are now drought free for the time being. This includes the communities of Chester, Colmesneil, Woodville, Jasper, Browndell, Pineland, Hemphill, and Newton to name a few. Basically we are talking about Tyler, Jasper, Newton, and Sabine counties as areas that are now drought free.

These locations that are drought free should come as no surprise considering it was in these areas where 5-7" of rain fell this past Tuesday. As you recall, we had several reports of flash flooding in these areas.

It is quite remarkable how fast we have come out of our drought in just the past four months, when at that time, we were in the worst drought category possible.

We will catch a break from the wet weather for the next several days as no storms loom on the horizon.