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Sept. 27, 2019: Which county was the wettest and driest this past water year?
Since we are close to the end of the 2019 Water Year (if you recall, the Water Year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 of the following year), we thought we would check-in and see how Texas and Oklahoma have fared precipitation-wise.
Tropical Storm Imelda certainly left its mark, but it didn’t result in large surpluses for the entire 2019 Water Year given how dry July and August were for most of Texas. Still, we see some of the larger surpluses along Imelda’s path.
The big winner so far in Texas (some of these ranking could change slightly in the next four days) is Madison County at 72” or 164% of average precipitation; while in Oklahoma, Ottawa County is in the lead at 74” and 168% of average precipitation. If anyone is interested, the county with the largest percent of average in the Contiguous U.S. is McCone County in Montana with 190% of average precipitation, which is a whopping 23” of precipitation between October 2018 and Sept. 27, 2019.
The flip side of the precipitation coin shows that Dimmit County in Texas is in the lead for driest county in Texas with 71% of average precipitation, which is about 14” of moisture. Zapata and Maverick counties are not too far behind with 72% and 73% of average precipitation, respectively. No county in Oklahoma had less than 100% of average precipitation for the water year to date.
To round out the water year take a look at the below 7-day accumulated precipitation forecast that goes from Sept. 28 to Oct 4. Far West Texas might see some decent totals over the next week, but the real action will be further north in the Northern Rockies where they are expecting some serious early snow – possibly up to 3’ in some locations! Closer to home the Central Plains and the Midwest where they could see total north of 2”.