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Rain needed as moderate to severe drought conditions persist in Coastal Bend

The severe drought conditions have helped produce several fires in places such as Refugio, Beeville, Falfurrias, and other dry spots.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Parts of Nueces, San Patricio and Jim Wells counties were added to the extreme drought category as a majority of the Coastal Bend continues to deal with moderate to severe drought conditions.

The severe drought conditions have helped produce several fires in places such as Refugio, Beeville, Falfurrias, and other dry spots.

According to Nueces County ESD #2 Fire Chief Dale Scott, if we don't get some heavy rains soon his department and others around the Coastal Bend will continue to have to battle brush fires. There is a lot of tall grass out there that's starting to die and is easy to ignite.

"Right now it's very dry. It doesn't take much to get a very large fire going, especially with the southeast winds that we have all the time," Scott said.

Combined lake levels are still holding steady despite the lack of rain in 2019. During the fall season in 2018, the watershed produced water that mostly ended up in Lake Corpus Christi. As of Wednesday this week, lake levels were at 60-percent capacity, whereas in 2018 it was at 35-percent capacity.  

"At that time we were talking about water conservation and how we can preserve water, but then all of a sudden in that year we had a ton of rain happen in the upper Nueces River Basin where it flows into Choke Canyon and Lake Corpus Christi," said Steve Ramos, City of Corpus Christi Water Resource Manager.

September's rain in 2018 certainly helped turn around the water situation.

If rains don't come this September, the Coastal Bend could start seeing combined lake levels fall to 40-percent as soon as December. The decrease would then trigger Stage 1 of our water restriction plan.

City ordinance prohibits irrigation by spray or sprinkles between the hours of 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

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