Societal Impacts on the State of Texas: June 2014 Summary Report
June ended surprisingly mild, with almost the entire state having seen temperatures that were near normal on average; the only notable exception is far west Texas near El Paso, where temperatures were well above normal on average. For precipitation, many parts of the state were much wetter than normal, including west Texas and east central Texas, though the rest of the state didn't far quite so well, especially the Lower Valley which saw very little rainfall. The moderate statewide accumulations helped improve reservoirs by 1% statewide, pulling the statewide levels out of record low territory, but with the hottest days of summer yet to come, it's unlikely that these levels will persist for long without more rain. The Colorado River is still struggling, with the Lower Colorado River Authority voting to increase water rates on customers from $151 to $174 per acre-foot and not to release water to farmers downstream. McKinney has entered revised stage 3 water restrictions, as has Rowlett, and continued in Garland, Plano, and Allen. Many regions around the state are acting to ban hydraulic fracturing in order to both conserve water and but at ease concerns about pollution; the TCEQ is drilling over 500 test wells to check for groundwater contamination from oil drilling. Where desalination is being considered, the high cost is concerning people, as an estimated average of $21.68 per month could be added to water bills to pay for the process.
In agricultural news, rains across the state have helped farmers. Expected corn planting acreage and harvesting acreage are both down, at 11% and 10% respectively. Upland cotton acreage is up 11 percent from last year, and Pima cotton 44%, but with no estimates on harvests yet. Winter wheat came in 5% lower than 2013 with a 2% reduction in harvest numbers, which were already low in 2013. Sorghum seemed to be the big winner for harvests, where no change in acres planted has thus far seen a 9% increase in harvested acres. Other smaller crops are all doing better in 2014 than 2013 with the exception of rice, still struggling with no discharge out of the Colorado River, which is down 3%.
Several fronts passed through the state in June, many of which spawned severe storms with damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes. At the beginning of the month, storms passing through the Panhandle and north Texas spawned tornadoes in the former and flooding and power outages in the later. The Metroplex saw over 26,000 people without power during the even, with over 9,000 remained without power for several days. A later storm system also knocked out power for 3,900 people. Similar storms caused flooding and damage in Houston, with an EF1 and 100 mph winds taking out over 200 cars and causing power outages to over 2,000 people.