For the first time since mid-August, the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor shows part of Grayson County outside of drought.
Thursday's map, dated Oct. 20, rates about 12.3% of the county as abnormally dry, the category the monitor uses for areas that are dry or recovering but not in drought. The rest of the county is still in drought: about 47.3% in moderate drought, 39.6% in severe drought and a sliver, 0.73%, in extreme drought.
Two months in the dry
The county's drought numbers have moved quickly this year, according to the monitor's county statistics:
- Aug. 11 map: only about 2.4% of the county was in moderate drought or worse.
- Aug. 25 map: all of it was.
- Sept. 15 through Sept. 29 maps: about 72.5% of the county was in extreme drought and 1.36% in exceptional drought, the monitor's worst category.
- Oct. 6 map: extreme drought had shrunk to under 1%.
- Oct. 13 map: severe drought or worse covered about 40% of the county, and all of the county was still in at least moderate drought.
This week's map is the first since the Aug. 18 map in which any share of the county falls below moderate drought.
A split across the region
The neighbors on either side of Grayson County look very different on the new map. In Cooke County to the west, moderate drought covers 0.06% of the county; the rest is rated abnormally dry. In Fannin County to the east, all of the county remains in severe drought or worse, and about 27% is in extreme drought.
