Drought in Texas, July 1 to 31, 2000

The drought continued to affect much of deep south Texas as many locations received little or no rain for the month of July. In fact, both Starr and Zapata counties have experienced severe drought conditions. According to the Farm Service Agency, farmers in Starr and Zapata counties were unable to plant their crops this summer, several ranchers have been forced to sell their cattle, many stock ponds have dried up, and even the native brush has started to die. The yearly departure from normal through July for Rio Grande City was 4.50 inches below normal while Zapata was 2.58 inches below normal. Although it doesn't seem that Zapata is that far below normal, the rainfall has been very spotty across the rest of Zapata county.Meanwhile, the rest of The Valley continued to be suffering a moderate drought with the lack of rainfall. Some stock ponds were beginning to dry up and pastures were deteriorating as subsoil moistures continued to be very low from accumulative deficits over the past year. The yearly rainfall departure from normal through July for some selected cities ranged from 1.55 inches below normal in Sarita to 6.34 inches below normal in McCook. In addition, the Falcon Lake reservoir level was at 251.23 feet which is approximately 50 feet below the normal conservation level of 302 feet.