Drought in Texas, July 1 to 31, 2022

Dallam County began the month of July with Exceptional Drought (D4) conditions across the far west, with Extreme Drought (D3) across the western half, and portions of the far north and northeast. The central and southeast portions of the county were in Severe Drought (D2) to start off the month. Overall, Dallam County received about 3 to 6 for a majority of the county during the month of July. The small area of Exceptional Drought conditions improved to Extreme Drought due to 1.5 to 2.5 across a majority of the county on July 12. The Extreme Drought only existed across the western portions of the county by mid month while the remainder of the county remained in Severe Drought. The remainder of the rainfall for the month generally fell during the July 29-31 rainfall event, which put almost all of Dallam County in Severe Drought, except for a small sliver in the west remaining Extreme Drought.

Sherman County was in Extreme Drought (D3) across the west and south central portion of the county at the beginning of July and Severe Drought (D2) for the remainder of the area. Much of the western portions of the county received 3 to 6 with even a small area of up to 8 of rainfall. A good third of the rainfall in the west fell during the first half of the month with drought conditions improving to Severe Drought across the entire county. A dry spell occurred for the second half of the month with the areas across the eastern half of the county declining to Extreme Drought until the 3 day rainfall event at the end of the month, which left the entire county back in Severe Drought to end July.

Hansford County began the month of July in Severe Drought (D2) across the northwest two-thirds of the county, while the southeast one-third was in Moderate Drought (D1). Small amounts of rainfall fell across the county leaving conditions the same until mid-month when conditions worsened to severe drought across the entire county. Most of the rainfall for Hansford County fell at the end of the month, therefore drought conditions continued to degraded to Extreme Drought (D3) across a majority of the county by the last week in July. However, about 1 to 2 fell across the county over July 29-31 and the drought conditions improved to severe drought to end the month.

Most of Lipscomb County started the month of July in Moderate Drought (D1) conditions, except for the northwest portion that was in Severe Drought (D2). Despite receiving 2 to 4 across most of the county and an area of 4 to 6 across the northwest through the month of July, the drought condition worsened by mid-month to Severe Drought across the entire county and remained at this state through the end of the month.

The far western sliver of Hartley County began the month of July in Exceptional Drought (D4), while the remainder of the western two-thirds of the county is in Extreme Drought (D3) and eastern third of the county is in Severe Drought (D2). The first half of the month the county received minimal precipitation with worsening drought conditions and an expansion of the exceptional drought eastward filling in the western third of the county. The remainder of the drought conditions across the county did not change from the beginning of the month. July 12th Hartley County received 1 to 3 of rainfall across the west and northwest, which led to complete improvement of the exceptional drought. Another event at the end of the month led to several days of rainfall and a total of 2 to 4 across the county, helping to lead to over 150% and above of normal value. This final event led to Hartley County ending the month in overall improvement to Severe Drought across the entire county.

Moore County begins the month with three separate drought classifications. Extreme Drought (D3) across the north central, Severe Drought (D2) portions of the north and east, and Moderate Drought (D1) to fill in the remainder of the county. Extreme Drought conditions were improved during the first two weeks of July with just a small amount of rainfall, less than an inch over the first two weeks. Total rainfall across Moore County for the month was about 2 to 5, with a majority of this falling at the end of the month across the south and southwest. Drought conditions across the county ended the month of July where a small sliver of Extreme Drought improved across the far southwest. The entire Moore County ended the month in Severe Drought.

Hutchinson County started the month of July with mostly Moderate Drought (D1) and a small area of Abnormally Dry (D0) across the southeast. The county received generally less than 3 of rainfall for the month, which is around or slightly below normal. Therefore the drought conditions by mid-month degraded across much of the county to Severe Drought. By the end of the month, the entire county was under Severe Drought conditions.

Hemphill County started the month in mostly Abnormally Dry (D0) conditions. For most of the county, the rainfall was below normal with drought conditions worsening to Moderate Drought (D1) and a sliver of Severe Drought (D2) across the far north central portion of the county. In the last few days of the month, conditions improved across the east to Abnormally Dry due to 2 to 3 of rainfall.

Drought conditions in Oldham County were mostly Extreme Drought (D3) with a sliver in the west of Exceptional Drought (D4) at the beginning of July. With minimal precipitation of 1 to 2 across portions of the county up until the last week of July, these conditions led to the drought conditions worsening and the western half of the county in Exceptional Drought and the remainder in Extreme Drought. On July 12, a wildfire broke out in the county due to breezy winds, low relative humidity, and highly receptive and dry fuels. However, in the last few days of July the county received a majority of its rainfall for the month. With about 4 to 8 across the area, the drought was significantly improved by the end of July with only the western half of the county in Extreme Drought and the eastern half in Severe Drought (D2).

Potter County at the beginning of July was in Extreme Drought across the western half of the county and then Severe Drought (D2) leading into Moderate Drought (D1) moving eastward. Minimal rainfall in the first three weeks of July lead to an increase in the Extreme Drought conditions across much of the southwest two-thirds of the county with Severe Drought in the rest. On July 3, a wildfire occurred due to strong winds, low relative humidity, and receptive fuels. A couple days of rainfall at the end of July lead to drought conditions improving across Potter County. In total about 3 to 6 of rainfall fell with the drought improving to mostly Severe Drought across the county.

Carson County started the month of July with the northeastern third to half in abnormally dry (D0) conditions. The southwest was in Moderate Drought (D1) with a very small portion in the southwest corner of the county in Severe Drought (D2). July was an abnormally hot and dry month with the area of D2 degrading to Extreme Drought and the area of D1 and D0 quickly reaching Severe Drought (D2) by the end of the second and third week. It wasn't until the very last 2 to 3 days of the month where the majority of the monthly rain fell and conditions improved to D1 for the majority of the county with the far northwest and southwest corners remaining in D2.

The north-central to eastern two thirds of the county started the month in Extreme Drought (D3) with the remaining western to southwestern portion in Exceptional Drought (D4). July was an abnormally warm and dry month especially up until the last few days. By mid month the majority of the county was in D4, with the exception of a small portion in the northeast corner that stayed in D3. The southern half of the county received 1.5 to 3.5 by the end of the month mostly thanks to a rain event over the last few days of the month. During these last few days the rest of the county ended the month with a grand total of 3.5 to 7 of rain. This allowed some improvement mainly in the north and east becoming D3 and D2 once again, while the majority of the southern to western half stayed in D4.

Randall County started the month with the west to northwest third of the county in Extreme Drought (D3) with the rest of the county in Severe Drought (D2). By mid month the entire county was in Extreme Drought with a portion of the west-central to southwest degraded to Exceptional Drought (D4). Although the majority of the month was abnormally warm and very dry, some relief came during the very last few days of the month where 3 to 6 of rain fell with some isolated areas seeing even more. This allowed the majority of the county to improve in drought category before going into the first week of Aug. A small sliver of the far southwest corner remained in D4 while with the south to southwest half in D3 still and the north to northeast half improving to D2 by the end of the month.

During the first half of the month the southwest two thirds of Armstrong County went from Severe Drought (D2) to Extreme Drought (D3) due to a dry start to the month. The other northeastern third went from Moderate Drought (D1) to Severe Drought (D2) at the same time. A late month rain event during the last few days led a one categorical improvement for all areas except for the far southern quarter to third of the county which remained in Extreme Drought (D3).

A small area in the far southern portion of the county was in Severe Drought (D2) at the beginning of the month. The majority of the county was in Moderate Drought (D1) with a small area in the far northern portion of the county was only abnormally dry (D0). A few isolated areas of the county received just above 2 of rain for the month, while the rest of the county only received 0.5 to 1.5 of rain. With this still being between 1 and 2 below normal especially in the southern half of the county degradation were observed in drought conditions by the end of the month. The county ended with the far southwest corner in Extreme Drought (D3) and the rest of the county in Severe Drought (D2).

Donley County started the month of July primarily in Moderate Drought (D1) with the exception of a small portion in the far southwest corner that was in Severe Drought (D2). A few rainfall events during the month led to a spread of 1.5 to 3 of rain being received over the course of the month. This is still well below normal for the month of July and led to the area of Moderate Drought degrading to Severe Drought and the area of Severe Drought degrading to Extreme Drought (D3) in the far southwest by the end of the month. The one exception was a late in the month event led to the far northwest corner switching fright back to Moderate Drought by Aug 1.