0 Travis County has slipped into moderate drought after weeks of little to no rain in the Austin and surrounding area, according to a map released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Parts of the Hill Country are now in extreme drought, including portions of Mason, Llano and Gillespie counties, the map shows.
“In a lot of areas, no matter what happens the rest of the year, it’s not going to be a good crop,” Nielsen-Gammon said.
Gary Elliott, who owns the Driftwood Estate Winery in Driftwood, said the creek he relies on to irrigate his vineyard went dry this year — only the second time that has happened in 20 years.
On Thursday, he was trying to lower a pipe to draw water to the grapes so he doesn’t lose his whole crop.
“There is a lot of heat stress on vines right now.” READ MORE: With 17 triple-digit days, July was Austin’s seventh-warmest on record Earlier this week, scattered showers dropped about 1½ inches rain in Mason and Marble Falls, Lower Colorado River Authority rain gauges show, but it did little to improve the dry conditions.
“Historically, precipitation is that low only five times per century.” As the ground dries up, it heats more rapidly, water evaporates faster and the drought worsens, creating a sort of domino effect, said Troy Kimmel, a University of Texas meteorology professor.
“We’ve got to have something that is going to give us some rain in Central Texas,” Kimmel said.
A fire near Inks Lake State Park that started Sunday was nearly 100 percent contained Thursday.
Burn bans remain in place in most of Central Texas, including in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Burnet and Bastrop counties, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.