Drought Information Summary

General Drought Information for Texas

There are many definitions for drought based on conceptual, operational or disciplinary perspectives.

Please read definition of drought.

Common Drought Indices:

Crop Moisture Index (CMI),

Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI),

Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI),

Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI),

Reservoir Storage Index (RSI),

Streamflow Index (SFI).

Drought conditions in Texas by climatic region:

Select a Date:

If selected date is invalid, the date will be set to 8/6/2009. If selected date has no data the date will be set to the first previous date with data.

Select date: click image to show calendar

(Click the image button to show calendar;
calendar dismisses automatically when you choose a date)

Drought Severity by Climatic Region on 5/15/2012

Region ID	Region Name	Crop Moisture Index	Palmer Drought Severity Index	Standard Precipitation Index	Keetch-Byram Drought Index	Reservoir Storage Index	Streamflow Index
	Context	Short-term meteorologic	General, hydrologic	Precipitation	Fire risk	Water supply	Streamflow
1	High Plains	Abnormally Dry	Severe Drought	Near Normal	High Risk	Exceptionally Low	Abnormally Dry
2	Low Rolling Plains	Abnormally Dry	Moderate Drought	Near Normal	Above Average	Severely Low	Moderately Low
3	North Central	Slightly Dry or Favorably Moist	Near Normal	Moderately Wet	Average or Low	Near Normal	Moderately Low
4	East Texas	Slightly Dry or Favorably Moist	Mild Drought	Near Normal	Average or Low	Near Normal	Moderately Low
5	Trans Pecos	Slightly Dry or Favorably Moist	Moderate Drought	Near Normal	Above Average	Exceptionally Low	Severely Low
6	Edwards Plateau	Abnormally Moist	Near Normal	Near Normal	Average or Low	Moderately Low	Near Normal
7	South Central	Slightly Dry or Favorably Moist	Mild Drought	Near Normal	Average or Low	Moderately Low	Near Normal
8	Upper Coast	Abnormally Moist	Incipient Dry Spell	Near Normal	Average or Low	Near Normal	Abnormally Dry
9	Southern	Slightly Dry or Favorably Moist	Mild Drought	Near Normal	Average or Low	Moderately Low	Near Normal
10	Lower Valley	Slightly Dry or Favorably Moist	Mild Drought	Near Normal	Above Average	No Data	No Data

Severity of drought is illustrated by cell colors from the worst (dark red thru red, orange, yellow) to the least (light yellow) and no drought (white). The 6-month SPI is used throughout this summary.

Texas's drought information from other organizations:

Texas drought map from the National Drought Mitigation Center,
University of Nebraska in Lincoln:

Texas 6-month SPI-blend map from the Office of Texas State Climatologist @TAMU:

Current KBDI map from the Spatial Sciences Laboratory @TAMU: