Texas Drought
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History of the Texas Drought
This very dry drought has been going on for more than 4 years. It started in October 2010. This drought has been worse than the drought in 1950. 2011 was the driest year for Texas with an average of 14.8”. 2011 also set new records for low rainfall from March through May, and again from June through August. The high summer temperatures increased evaporation, further lowering rivers and lake levels.
What does the drought affect?
Boating
Property Value
Rising Meat Prices
Electicity
Agriculture
Appliances
Why is the drought so severe in Texas and not in any surrounding states?
Many Texans say that this is because of climate change in Texas. Texans also say it is also because of made-made global warming, but that is not it actually. Last year's huge drought was a freak of nature that wasn't caused by man-made global warming, a new federal science study finds. Scientists say the lack of moisture usually pushed up from the Gulf of Mexico was the main reason for the drought in the nation's midsection. Five different federal agencies looked in to why forecasters couldn't see it coming. Lead author Martin Hoerling says, “It is one of those events that comes every few hundred years.” He says that climate change has made no significant part into leading to the drought. Many scientists have tried to prove that this part of global warming, but many other scientists have proved that these statements are not valid.
How does the drought affect Texas’s Economy?
Dwindling supplies of water and electricity are imperiling the state's economic future, a Texas Senate committee was told Tuesday. Plants that generate power require access to about 40 percent of the state's water supply each year but consume only about 3 percent of that total, according to the industry. The remainder is returned to nature after it cools generators. Plants have been impacted catastrophically. Cotton fields are going to waste and many companies have also been impacted by the deadly drought. Slowly, the Texas economy is going down by trying to fund it.
This summer's record stretch of 62 days without rain in North Texas, after four years in which some areas of the state have had almost no appreciable rain, has left thousands of acres of crops wasted, dried up lakes and helped spark 650 fires.
What is Texas doing to help water conservations?
LUBBOCK -- Christian Cardenas, a fifth grader at Bayless Elementary School, bubbled with excitement last month as he opened a box containing a low-flow shower head and other water-saving devices.''These are really cool kits!'' he exclaimed as he held up a packet of tablets used to detect toilet leaks. He planned to start making his home more water-efficient that evening -- perhaps with his father's help.The kits are part of an effort by the local groundwater district to encourage conservation in a region that has been dealing with a severe drought. This school year, the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District, which stretches across 16 counties in West Texas and the Panhandle, expects to spend up to $75,000 to distribute kits and educational materials to more than 2,100 schoolchildren, including the fifth graders at Bayless. Schools elsewhere in the state also incorporate water education, but officials often face budget constraints even as they praise the effectiveness of interactive learning.
Texas Drought
Website: ympoth.wix.com/Texas-Drought