No part of Collin County is in extreme drought for the first time since early September, federal map shows

The dry spell that gripped Collin County through late summer has eased sharply over the past four weeks, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday.

The weekly map, which reflects conditions as of Tuesday, Oct. 20, shows no part of the county in extreme or exceptional drought. That has not been true since the map of Sept. 1. About 32% of the county is now rated in severe drought, the third of the monitor's five levels, and the remaining 68% is in moderate drought.

How far it had gone

The swing over the past two months has been sharp. In the first week of August, the monitor rated more than 98% of the county free of any dryness. By mid-September most of the county had slid into extreme drought, and the map for Sept. 29 had 90.5% of Collin County in extreme drought, with 14.7% in exceptional drought, the most severe category.

Since then the ratings have improved each week:

• Sept. 29: all of the county in severe drought or worse; 90.5% extreme; 14.7% exceptional
• Oct. 6: 89.3% severe or worse; 14.7% extreme; none exceptional
• Oct. 13: 48.1% severe or worse; 4.2% extreme
• Oct. 20: 31.6% severe; none extreme

The whole county is still in drought of at least moderate intensity.

Neighbors to the north and east

Grayson County, home to Sherman and Denison, improved further this week: about 12% of it is now rated only abnormally dry, below drought level, with 40% in severe drought and less than 1% in extreme. Fannin County remains entirely in severe drought or worse, with 27% in extreme drought. Dallas County is now almost all in moderate drought.

What drove the change

The monitor's authors credited a storm system that dropped heavy rain across parts of Texas and Oklahoma Oct. 13-15, which supported improvements across western and northern Texas. They also wrote that moisture deficits built up over the summer kept the improvements from being larger.

The forecast in this week's summary does not point to much more relief soon. The Weather Prediction Center's five-day outlook through Oct. 27 placed the heaviest rain well to the west, from western Texas and the Panhandle into Oklahoma's Panhandle, and the Climate Prediction Center's 6-10 day outlook for Oct. 26-30 favored above-normal temperatures across much of the southern United States.

Sources

droughtmonitor.unl.edu

usdmdataservices.unl.edu

usdmdataservices.unl.edu

usdmdataservices.unl.edu

usdmdataservices.unl.edu