Drought
Use the Drought FAQ to find information faster!
Texas is no stranger to drought. This page describes our role in monitoring drought and providing assistance in times of drought as well as providing links to learn more about current conditions in Texas.
TWDB and Drought
The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) serves on the Texas Drought Preparedness Council. The Council is charged with supporting drought management efforts in the state and with conducting drought monitoring, assessment, preparedness, mitigation, and assistance. The Council prepares monthly drought situation reports on the status of drought conditions in the state and delivers these reports to state leadership. The latest monthly report can be viewed at the Council's home page.
In an effort to provide updated drought information the TWDB has been compiling drought index data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Texas A&M University, and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln since August 2009. The TWDB maintains a database for these data in addition to a dataset of reservoir storage and streamflow conditions. This information is provided in a user-friendly application in terms of drought summaries, maps, charts and animations.
TWDB staff also prepare monthly Texas Water Conditions reports. These reports document storage in the state's reservoirs as well as groundwater levels in the state's aquifers. In addition, the TWDB maintains information on reservoir storage for different regions of the state as well as for individual reservoirs (Note that we only have information for those reservoirs with level gages).
The Board is also a cooperator with the U.S. Geological Survey in monitoring real-time stream flows across the state.
The TWDB, in coordination with regional water planning groups across the state, develops a state water plan that plans for a repeat of the drought of record. The latest state water plan and planning efforts are available at Water Resources Planning & Information.
For more information about the drought and drought assistance, please contact the TWDB staff.
Current Drought Monitoring
- Texas Drought Preparedness Council
- Office of the State Climatologist
- County Burn Bans
- U.S. Drought Monitor
- Palmer Drought Severity Index (weekly)
- National Weather Service
- Streamflow Conditions (U.S. Geological Survey)
- Map of Water Systems under Water Use Restrictions (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality)
- Drought and Public Water Systems
- TWDB Daily Ground Water Levels
- US Drought Monitor 12 Previous Weekly Drought Condition Maps Animated
- Real-time Reservoir Storage Information
- Statewide Reservoir Storage Curves
- Vegetation Drought Response Index
- Amount of Rainfall Needed to Come Out of Drought
Drought Outlook
- U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook
- Predictions on La Nina (tends to be dry for Texas) and El Nino (tends to be wet for Texas, inhibits hurricanes) cycles:
- Predicting Drought (at National Drought Mitigation Center)