Drought expanded across nearly eight percent of Texas in a single week, and the most severe category on the federal scale returned to the Panhandle after a five-week absence — even as the state’s reservoirs, refilled by July flooding, remain about three-quarters full.
The two numbers point in opposite directions, and both are current. The U.S. Drought Monitor, the weekly federal and university assessment released each Thursday, put 57.28 percent of Texas in some level of drought in its Aug. 13 release, using data valid Aug. 11. A week earlier the figure was 49.37 percent — a jump of 7.91 percentage points in seven days. A year earlier it was 29.16 percent. The share of the state in extreme drought or worse rose from 4.21 percent to 6.14 percent, an increase of nearly half in one week.
Meanwhile Water Data for Texas, the reservoir monitoring service run by the Texas Water Development Board, the state agency that plans and finances water supply, reported the state’s monitored water supply reservoirs 76.2 percent full on Aug. 18. That is 28.1 million acre-feet of water in storage. An acre-foot is roughly 326,000 gallons, about what two average Texas households use in a year.
Reservoirs record what has already fallen; the drought map records what is happening to the ground now. July storms filled the lakes, and the lakes are now draining under an August with little rain and repeated triple-digit heat. Storage was 77.0 percent a week ago, 77.8 percent a month ago and 77.9 percent a year ago. In the water that utilities can actually draw on, the state is down 537,792 acre-feet from this date in 2025.
The state’s own hydrologist described the direction plainly. “In the last week, degradations outpaced improvements across the state, leading to the second consecutive week that drought has expanded,” wrote Dr. Mark Wentzel of the water board’s Office of Water Science and Conservation in the agency’s weekly drought report for the week of Aug. 10. “After a five-week absence, exceptional drought (the most severe category) has returned to the state in parts of Carson and Gray counties in the Panhandle.”
Amarillo acted the following week. The city moved to Stage 1 of its drought contingency plan Aug. 17, its first since July 2022, asking residents to water outdoors on alternating days by house number, never on Saturdays, only between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and no more than three times a week. The trigger was not demand. It was the level of the city’s reservoir, which sits at 60 percent of capacity.
“The difference between the 2022 event and the current event is that the 2022 event was based on high demand. This event is based on the level of the reservoir,” Shannon Tollison, the city’s director of utilities for regulatory compliance, told NewsChannel 10. “The City can only fill the reservoir with water purchased from CRMWA. There are no other sources feeding the reservoir.” The Canadian River Municipal Water Authority supplies eleven Panhandle and South Plains cities.
Amarillo has recorded 4.79 inches of rain this year through Aug. 16 against a normal of 13.54 inches, and 28 days at or above 100 degrees since June — 23 more than usual, according to National Weather Service figures cited by the city. Most of Potter and Randall counties sit in extreme drought.
The statewide average also conceals how uneven the picture is. Six reservoirs are at or above capacity, including Texoma, Canyon and Wright Patman. Lake Travis stands at 97.9 percent and Buchanan at 98.4 percent. At the other end, Palo Duro Reservoir in the Panhandle is 0.4 percent full — 224 acre-feet against a capacity of 61,066. Greenbelt, which serves Panhandle communities the Dispatch reported on in June, is at 5.2 percent. Lake Meredith, Amarillo’s regional supply, is at 41.9 percent. Choke Canyon, the main storage for the Corpus Christi region, is at 24.1 percent.
The state adopted its 2027 water plan July 23, carrying a capital price tag of roughly $174 billion and an estimate that failing to act would cost the economy $91 billion in a single drought year by 2030. The Dispatch reported on the draft plan and its record cost in May. The next drought map lands Aug. 20, and reservoir storage updates several times a day.