The state’s climatologist, John Nielsen-Gammon, said cities that draw their water from the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers are not worried yet, but farmers should be.
This was true in Victoria, where the city plans not to restrict residents’ water usage until the Guadalupe’s flow falls at or below 200 cubic feet per second.
At about the same time, though, Chris Buzek was traversing his more than 2,500 acres of corn, milo, cotton and soybeans, praying for rain.
Buzek, a 30-year-old who took over his father’s farm after his death in 2009, said more than 1 inch of rain would be especially helpful.
“But we will deal with whatever Mother Nature gives us and go on down the road,” he said.
He said that saved those crops from Hurricane Harvey last year.
Not all were so lucky.
Some are using this as an opportunity to stress the importance of conserving water.
The Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation, for example, are recommending that all Texas cities limit outdoor watering to no more than two days per week to deal with what they call “climatic whiplash” and an expected population growth of 23 million by 2050.
And these groups last gave Victoria a score of 52 out of 100 when it comes to water conservation.