SPONSORED CONTENT: Livestock Wx, a provider of weather information for stock producers, discusses dryness around Texas and Oklahoma and some potential relief over the next 7 days.
Satellite imagery can help evaluate soil moisture and the health of vegetation. The below Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) highlights areas with high or low rates of water use across the land surface. Drier than normal areas show decreased evaporation and or water use by plans while wetter than normal areas show increases in both of these variables.  This helps us identify areas where drought is starting to develop.  It also can help rapidly developing droughts called “flash drought”, which are periods of extended hot, dry, and windy conditions leading to rapid soil moisture depletion.
Red areas indicate not enough soil moisture to support vegetation needs while areas in darker shades of green indicate vegetative stress due to too much soil moisture.
This past 4-week ESI image shows an increase in dryness (red) over western sections of Oklahoma and western and South Texas. However, there is variability, representing summertime scattered storms.

Note the general similarity between the ESI and the recently-updated U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas and Oklahoma. Over the last two weeks Severe Drought (D2) was introduced in west-central Oklahoma and in the Texas Panhandle and in this week’s Drought Monitor Severe Drought was introduced in the Texas Hill Country and around Oklahoma City.

NOAA’s Quantitative Precipitation Forecast, which shows the expected accumulated rainfall over the next 7-days, indicates some of these dry areas could see some relief, however.

Livestock Wx will continue to monitor these conditions.  For information about weather conditions in your area and the potential impacts to livestock, please contact Livestock Wx at: info@livestockwx.com