Hottest May on record worsens dry spring season for Austin; drought threat deepens for summer
The end of May means saying goodbye to spring and howdy to summer, but let's face it: We didn't have much of a spring this year in Austin.
As of Sunday, spring had generated only 4.74 inches of rainfall at Camp Mabry, site of Austin's main weather station, or about 48% of the 9.85 inches the city has gotten this calendar year. Austin's cumulative rainfall for 2022 is running at least 4.71 inches below normal.
The lack of rain means critical regional water sources such as the watersheds that feed the Highland Lakes along the Colorado River are not being adequately replenished.
With the volume of water stored in lakes Travis and Buchanan at 1.4 million acre-feet and dropping, the city of Austin on Friday announced new water usage restrictions for residents starting June 6.
"Austin’s Drought Contingency Plan sets a trigger at this storage level at which the City Manager may order the implementation of Stage 1 conservation measures," the city said in a statement Friday.
Under Stage 1 restrictions, watering via automatic irrigation systems is reduced to 13 hours, from midnight to 8 a.m. and from 7 p.m. to midnight.
Previous watering restrictions under Conservation Stage, the lowest stage of the Water Conservation Code, remain unchanged, including:
• A once-a-week automatic irrigation watering schedule for residents and businesses.
• A twice-a-week hose-end irrigation watering schedule for residents.
• Businesses limiting the use of patio misters to between 4 p.m. and midnight.
Commercial car washes can operate normally, and residents can wash their vehicles with a bucket and/or an automatic shut-off nozzle, the city said.
"The only change between Conservation Stage and Stage 1 is the reduction of automatic irrigation watering hours," interim Water Director Robert Goode said. "Watering only in the early morning or late evening hours, when temperatures are coolest, will help reduce unnecessary water loss through evaporation, and that continues to support Austin’s water conservation efforts.”
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Exceptional drought close to Austin
Data this week from the U.S. Drought Monitor, a consortium of academic and government researchers, show the five Austin metro area counties — Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell — experiencing conditions from abnormally dry to extreme drought.
Although the portion of the state affected by drought has dropped from 90.4% the previous week to about 87%, the area of exceptional drought — the most severe level of drought — is now at the western border of Williamson, Travis and Hays counties.
Exceptional drought — typified by crop loss and extreme sensitivity to fire danger — eased from 28.9% of the state last week to about 22%.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's drought forecast report from May 23, the statewide average rainfall from September to April was less than 10 inches, making that period in Texas the sixth-driest on record and the driest since 1925.
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Summer gets a head start
Meteorologists, like any other group of scientists, prefer to have consistent time frames when collecting data, so spring for them consists of the calendar months of March, April and May — and summer starts June 1 (not the summer solstice, which can vary from year to year).
Spring delivered only a fraction of its normal rainfall in Central Texas, according to the National Weather Service. March normally produces 2.88 inches of rain but recorded only 0.99 at Camp Mabry this year. Even April fell short, generating only 1.72 inches of rain instead of the normal 2.42.
May — which is, on average, Austin's wettest month of the year, normally producing 5.04 inches of rain — was expected to report only 2.03 inches this year.
"For south-central Texas, late May into June is typically the wettest time of year," the weather service tweeted Saturday. "Right now, there are no clear signs for widespread rainfall over the next week and potentially longer. If these trends continue, we could be looking ahead at a hot summer."
The looming hot summer got a head start in May, when Austin recorded its first 100-degree temperature on May 21. The last time Camp Mabry had triple-digit temperatures in May was in 2011, a year that produced a total of 90 such days, including three in May.
May's current average temperature of 81.8 degrees makes it the warmest May on record in Austin. Even with a couple of days to go, May 2022's average temperature was already at least 1 degree higher than the next-warmest May (in 2018 and 1996).
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Forecast calls for more heat, dryness
The NOAA drought forecast report also said the risk of wildfires will be elevated for drought-stricken areas of the Southern Plains through at least June, and lower than normal precipitation is more likely for Texas from June through August.
The weather service's extended forecast for Austin calls for a hot start for June.
After a steamy, rain-free Memorial Day, Austin should see temperatures soar to the upper 90s under sunny skies. On Wednesday, the first day of June, the daytime high should reach 96 with nighttime air temperatures staying above a balmy 73 degrees.
Thursday and Friday both should see temperatures peaking in the high 90s, which is only a few degrees warmer than normal. No rain is in the forecast, the weather service said.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Hottest May ever worsens dry Austin spring, drought threat deepens
