July 4 Texas floods make sizeable dent in Hill Country, Central Texas drought, data show

Heavy rainfall that resulted in deadly catastrophic flooding over the Fourth of July weekend also led to sizeable reductions in drought levels across Central Texas and the Hill Country, data released Thursday show.

The total percentage of Texas in drought decreased from about 38% last week to 31% this week, according to data gathered Tuesday for the U.S. Drought Monitor, a drought map produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Although seven percentage points may seem less than impressive to some, the flooding brought the biggest change to areas that were in exceptional drought, which is the worst of five levels of dryness used by the U.S. Drought Monitor’s scale.

Exceptional drought

Last week, about 5.75% the state was in exceptional drought, which is typified by historically low water levels, widespread crop losses and heightened wildfire danger. Although exceptional drought statewide dropped by less than two percentage points to only 4.38%, South and Central Texas felt the change the most.

In South-Central Texas last week, exceptional drought encompassed all of Bandera and Medina counties, the eastern two-thirds of Kerr County, the eastern half of Uvalde County, and the western third of Bexar County, including parts of San Antonio.

After the Fourth of July flooding, however, the area under exceptional drought in South-Central Texas shrank by about 72%, and is now focused almost entirely on just Medina County and the northeast corner of Uvalde County.

A large area of the Hill Country has recorded 3 to 8 inches of rain over the past seven days, with isolated totals of 10 to 15 inches in parts of central and southern Kerr County.

The rain made a big dent in the Hill Country drought: Much of Bandera, Kerr, and Kendall counties are now in moderate to severe drought — the lowest categories of dryness used by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

San Antonio

The flooding had an outsized effect not just on the Hill Country but also on rain-starved Texas cities like San Antonio and Austin.

For instance, San Antonio through May 22 received only 5.8 inches of rain, which was 5.75 inches below average through that point in the year. The past seven weeks have brought ample rainfall to South Texas, though.

Through July 9, San Antonio has now received 20.04 inches of rain for the year, which is 2.93 inches of rain above average for the year to date. San Antonio has already received 85% of the rainfall the city recorded in all of 2024, a year that brought 23.68 inches of rainfall.

Even though rainfall has been plentiful, San Antonio, along with a large part of Bexar County, remains under extreme drought, which is the second-worst level of dryness as measured by the U.S. Drought Monitor. The far north and eastern portions of Bexar County are fairing slightly better, with areas like Timberwood Park and Live Oak under severe drought, which is the third-worst level of drought.

How could South Texas still be in a drought after all that rain? It’s because the ongoing drought is long-term, stretching back several years of below-average rainfall. Since the start of 2022, San Antonio is still 39.02 inches of rain below normal for that period, making it the highest rainfall deficit of any large city in Texas.

Austin

Austin also started the year drier than normal: Through May 22, the Austin got only 8.89 inches of rain, which was 4.3 inches below average for the year to date.

But in the past seven weeks, Austin is now up to 20.43 inches of rain for the year, which is 1.19 inches of rain above average for the same period. Austin has already received 72% of the rainfall the city recorded in all of 2024, a year that brought 28.25 inches of rainfall.

The ongoing drought, though, haunts the Texas capital as well: Since the start of 2022, Austin is still 25.96 inches of rain below average, the second-highest rainfall deficit of any large city in Texas, behind San Antonio.

Who is drought-free?

As drought receded in some places, drought-free areas in South-Central Texas also expanded in the past week. In the Hill Country, Mason, Llano and Burnet counties, and Williamson County, north of Austin in the Interstate 35 corridor, went from moderate drought and abnormally dry to drought-free.

Meanwhile counties like Travis, Hays and Blanco went from severe drought last week to merely abnormally dry, the lowest category on the U.S. Drought Monitor’s dryness scale. Gillespie County and the other areas surrounding Fredericksburg went from severe or extreme drought to being 74% abnormally dry.

As a snapshot of drought levels, the U.S. Drought Monitor map takes into account weather and hydrology data, local expert feedback and other reported observations. The map is a delayed snapshot, though: Data is collected each Tuesday but map authors take time to review it and don’t publish an updated drought map until Thursday.