Societal Impacts on the State of Texas: August 2016 Summary Report
August ended as one of the wettest in Texas’s history, wiping away many of the developing short-term drought conditions from the past couple months. Many of the storms over the month would stall over certain locations due to receiving tropical moisture from the Gulf meeting up with cold fronts and stalling their movement over the state. Rainfall totals as high as 12 inches in single events helped fuel eventual flooding, and the state as a whole averaged over 5.5 inches. The flooding had impacts on some companies, for example the U.S. Concrete Inc. who lost some of their business due to places being too flooded to work. The Texas Water Development Board received $3.5 million to go towards better aid systems. Farmers had varying amounts of cooperation from the weather this month. Many farmers had to resort to secondary crops, such as sunflowers, because conditions were never right for their usual crops. One farmer lost 19 cows due to lightning striking the tree the cows were taking shelter under.
In spite of the rain, high temperatures posed a threat to people’s health. Frequent triple digit temperatures and 110+ degree heat indices warranted several heat advisories across the state. Utility companies reported high revenues this month, including one in El Paso that saw an increase of $1.2 million while reducing their carbon output by 1 billion tons. While energy usage at peak times were higher on average, the highest peak usage of 69,877 MWh was lower than the expected 70,588 MWh.