Thursday, October 1, 2009

El Nino likely to ease drought...but not end it

The Austin American Stateman (by Nathan Adkisson) report that climate specialists indicate that the mild El Nino conditions are expected to ease the drought of Central Texas. However, there is also a word of caution in the article that not all El Nino events generate higher-than-average rainfall. Thus, there are no guarantees that this El Nino will generate more rain. In fact, El Nino events only generate 30% more rainfall on average. That would still not erase the deficit we've accumulated over the past 2 years and the article states that we still may emerge from winter with a deficit of rainfall.

Click here for a link to the article

For the (hydrologic) drought to end for the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer rainfall has the added requirement of falling (in abundance) in the right location--that is within the contributing watersheds (e.g. Hill Country).

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