It is a new year, and while we were hoping for some new weather patterns, 2012 has brought back La Nina. It is it important for scientist and decision makers to implement lessons learned during last year's diasters and also to evaluate risks.
Ron Mcqueen from the National Weather Service spoke to producers recently to help them better understand and prepare for West Texas drought and wildfire.
"We've got a horrible drought going on," McQueen said. "The 2011 drought went on record as the worst drought ever for the state of Texas, and we are not done with it here in West Texas. We need a lot of rain and soon before planting. Our water supplies are also stressed. We need to replenish the water supplies."
McQueen knows a good thing when he sees it and said farmers on the High Plains are the cream of the crop.
"Farmers out here are doing an outstanding job," McQueen said. "We have some of the most advanced farming tenchniques and farmers in the world right here in West Texas. I think they have improved a large amount from what I've seen in my 20-30 years that I've been out in this area."
McQueen said many parts of Texas are out of the drought, and although that's not the case for West Texas quite yet, there is reason to believe rain may be headed our way.
"We do have lots of hope," McQueen said. "We have seen a wet winter, in fact, the 11th wettest winter in Central and Eastern Texas in December and January. There has been a lot of rain out there and the fact that it is even falling in that part of Texas is a good sign because that is something that we did not see last year."
In fact, McQueen said this year is starting out like many other years in the past.
"We usually are struggling in the late winter and early spring," McQueen said. "We often have years when we are short on planting moisture, and that is how we are looking at things this year. We are looking at it, in some ways, as more of a typical year because we have had a number of rain systems in West Texas and especially in East and Central texas lately that gives us a lot of hope that we are going to break out of this, but we do still need to actually see this rain fall."
Although the drought could be on the way out, one must not forget where we are and what weather is here to stay.
"The wind will blow," McQueen said. "We are coming up into our windy season which is mid March through most of April. We often have high wind events and blowing dust, and we certainly expect more of that this year."
It is a familiar story. You have heard it before, but McQueen insisted that for right now, it is best to sit tight and wait to see what happens precipitation wise in the coming months.
