Recent rain helps but West Texas still in a drought

Beau Berman at CBS7 News (Texas): The ground is damp and temperatures are lower but even after the weekend’s rainfall, west Texas is still in a severe drought. The recent rain was a nice respite from months of total dryness and while it did boost one of our reservoirs, city officials are urging residents to stick to the restrictions.



The recent downpours are providing some much needed relief to west Texas, adding moisture to the soil and helping to replenish local ponds. The greatest impact is at the Ivie Reservoir, where rain and runoff added 2500 acre-feet of water, enough to supply about three weeks worth of water to CRMWD customers.



Still, city officials say we're not out of the drought just yet. "The water restrictions are still enforced, code enforcement will still be looking for violators and nuisance water", says Midland Utilities Superintendent Johnny Womack. Midland's “Hill Park” looks like a pond once again, after months of dryness. But Womack says the less than two inches of rainfall was not enough to deliver us from the drought.



The weekend rains helped add some water back to the duck pond in Midland that desperately needed the moisture, as did many yards around the area, but Midland and Odessa are now both warning residents that this doesn't mean it's time to start wasting water....



Double Mountain Fork Brazos River, 9 km north of Rotan, in Fisher County, Texas or 15 km south of Double Mountain, Stonewall County, Texas. Shot by Leaflet, who has released the image into the public domain

Heavier rain major cause of Tsolum River flooding

Philip Round in Canada.com: Experts probing why the Tsolum River has been running so high in recent years have concluded it's mainly because it's raining more heavily and frequently than in the past. Suggestions that the impact of logging operations might be contributing to much greater run-off from the watershed "cannot explain the occurrence of high flows on the Tsolum River in 2009 and 2010."



But they acknowledge that assessment is based on available information, particularly from TimberWest itself, about changes to its forest management practices over the past 50 years. Northwest Hydraulic Consultants (NHC) was commissioned to conduct the detailed flood hydrology investigation of the watershed by three partners who shared the cost - Comox Valley Regional District, the City of Courtenay and TimberWest Forest Corporation. Its final report will be presented to the regional district this afternoon (Tuesday).



Local governments got involved because of concerns over more frequent flooding in Courtenay and why it might be happening. Around 2010 there were what NHC call "three flood events" involving the Tsolum - one of them the biggest in 46 years of measuring flows. But having analyzed available statistics, the consultants found the Tsolum was not unusual in carrying huge quantities of water at that time.



"There have been a number of large floods on the east coast of Vancouver Island during the last five years that have either been the largest or second largest over the period of record," the report notes. "These include floods on the Tsolum, Puntledge, Oyster, Quinsam, Englishman, Cowichan and Koksilah Rivers." And having compared the data for several rivers between Duncan and Port Hardy, NHC concludes: "The recent upsurge in flooding is closely associated with extreme precipitation events."...



Locator map of British Columbia