The lack of rain is causing a big impact to the area.
“Well, we’ve been in severe drought for some time, and there’s still parts of the area that’s in extreme drought condition,” said KAMC News chief meteorologist Ron Roberts. “There’s been slight improvement since spring and summer rain but not enough, very spotty rain, so the drought continues to be quite severe.”
Right now, 8 percent of the state is in severe drought, including Lubbock.
“This drought has been developing in the past three to six months. We see, just in the last few weeks, it worsening in a large part of Texas,” said Jody James, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service. “When we get into this hot time of the year, this lack of rainfall becomes a bigger impact.”
Roberts said there won’t be relief anytime soon.
“There’s no question that this will not be a good year for cotton, and therefore it will impact our economy,” Roberts said. “This area is the center of cotton production in the United States.”
Agriculture and economy expert Darren Hudson said there’s no doubt the drought is affecting the economy.
“The drought obviously is a big issue for the agricultural producers in the area,” Hudson said. “This isn’t 2011, fortunately, but there are certainly wide swaths of the area that has seen very little rainfall, which is gonna impact ultimate production.”
However, the economic impact extends beyond rural agriculture and even into things like tourism and real estate.
“Overall if you look at the regional activity, agriculture accounts for about 30 percent of that. Where ag goes, you know the regional economy tends to go,” Darren said.
