It’s a tired Texas truism: If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. In mid-July, morning temperatures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area fell to 67 degrees, almost breaking a record low set more than 100 years ago. Earlier this year, record-breaking spring rains came on the heels of a record-setting heat wave in much of the state.
But the Rio Grande Valley seems to be getting a major case of atmospheric whiplash. In June, parts of the area saw massive flooding after more than a foot of rain fell in about six hours. More than a thousand homes were destroyed or damaged after the storm, which broke daily rainfall records in McAllen, Brownsville, and other cities. And now, in the Lower Valley, drought has started to creep in, and a handful of counties are experiencing severe to moderate drought conditions. An August report from the U.S. Drought monitor found that droughts in the lower Rio Grande are predicted to get worse over the summer.
“Part of what we’re seeing here is the legendary variability of weather in Texas,” says Robert Mace, the chief water policy officer at Texas State University’s Meadows Center. “Parts of the Valley received more than 10 inches of rain over the past 30 days—more than three times normal—while nearby parts of the valley received less than an inch—less than a quarter of normal.” It’s difficult to trace singular weather events to climate change, Mace cautions, though each scenario could have been influenced by the global phenomenon.
