The Texas Water Conditions Report for Dec. 2024 was released and can be found on the Texas Water Development Board in PDF form.
In December, little to no rain fell in over West, Central and Southern areas of the state. The northeastern North Central, northern South Central, Upper Coast, eastern Lower Valley, and East Texas climate divisions received upwards to 13.66 inches this month.
Compared to historical data from 1991–2020, 0–75 percent of normal rainfall was received in High Plains, Trans Pecos, Low Rolling Plains, Edwards Plateau, Southern, western Lower Valley, southern and western South Central, and western and southern North Central climate divisions.
Between 125–200 percent of normal rainfall was received northeastern North Central, northern South Central, East Texas, Lower Valley, and eastern Upper Coast climate divisions. Between 200–400 percent of normal rainfall was received in central North Central, Central East Texas, central South Central, and eastern Lower Valley climate divisions. Between 400– 600 percent of normal rainfall was seen in the eastern Lower Valley climate division.
At the end of December, 63.42% of the state was in the abnormally dry through exceptional drought categories. This is approximately 3.57% lower than the end of November.
Out of 119 monitored reservoirs in the state, 26 reservoirs held 100% conservation storage capacity, and 36 reservoirs were at or above 90% full this month.
Fifteen reservoirs remained at or below 30 percent full: Abilene (6% full), Amistad (26.5% full), Choke Canyon (16.8% full), Corpus Christi (26.1% full), E.V. Spence (17.2% full), Falcon (13.8% full), Greenbelt (9% full), Mackenzie (9.2% full), Medina Lake (2.7% full), New Terrell City (24.1% full), O.C. Fisher (8.4% full), Oak Creek (28.5% full), Palo Duro Reservoir (1.2% full), Twin Buttes (9.1% full), and the White River Lake (17.6% full). Elephant Butte Reservoir (New Mexico) was 9.4% full.
Reservoir conservation storage was at or above normal for East Texas (94.1% full), North Central (90.7% full), Low Rolling Plains (71.3% full), and the Upper Coast (84.4% full) climate divisions. Conservation storage was moderately low for the South Central (44.2% full) climate division.
The High Plains (33.6% full) and Edwards Plateau (35.4% full) climate divisions had severely low conservation storage and the Trans Pecos (14.1% full) and the Southern (15.8% full) climate divisions had extremely low conservation storage.
Combined conservation storage by river basin or subbasin was exceptionally low (under 10%) in the San Antonio river basin. The Upper-Mid Rio Grande, and Nueces river basins had extremely low conservation storage (10-20% full).
Severely low conservation storage (20–40% full) was seen in the Canadian, Lower Rio Grande, and Upper Colorado river basins. The Lower Colorado and Guadalupe river basins had moderately low conservation storage (40–60% full).
Normal to high conservation storage (more than 70% full) was observed in the Upper and Lower Red, Sulphur, Cypress, Upper and Lower Sabine, Upper and Lower Trinity, Upper and Lower Brazos, Neches, Lavaca, and San Jacinto river basins.
At the end of December 2024, root zone soil moisture was low in the North Central, West, Central, and South Texas. Areas of more severe dryness were seen in the Trans Pecos, northeastern and southern High Plains, Low Rolling Plains, Edwards Plateau, southern North Central, western East Texas, areas of South Central, Southern, Lower valley, and parts of the western Upper Coast climate divisions.
Average soil moisture was seen in the northern High Plains, eastern and western North Central, portions of East Texas, northern South Central, an area of southeastern Southern, southern Lower Valley and the Upper Coast climate divisions.
Compared to conditions at the end of November 2024, soil moisture increased in eastern North Central, northern South Central, eastern Upper Coast and East Texas climate divisions. Soil moisture decreased in the High Plains, Low Rolling Plains, Trans Pecos, Edwards Plateau, Southern, Lower Valley, western North Central, northwestern and southern South Central, and the western Upper Coast climate divisions.
Normal streamflow (25–75 percentile) was recorded in portions of the Panhandle, Eastern, and Central regions of Texas this month. Above normal streamflow (76–90 percentile) was seen the Canadian (Lower Beaver and Lake Meredith watersheds), Upper Red (Upper Prairie Dog Town Fork Red and South Witchita watersheds), Middle Brazos, and Neches (Upper Angelina watershed) river basins.
Much above normal streamflow (higher in 9o percentile) was seen in the Canadian (Middle Canadian-Spring watershed), Upper Red (North Witchita watershed), Colorado (Jim Ned watershed), and Neches (Lower Angelina watershed) river basins.
Below normal streamflow (10–24 percentile) was seen in the Pecos (Independence watershed), Upper Sabine (Lake Fork watershed), Upper Red (Witchita watershed), Lower Brazos, Middle and Lower Colorado, Brazos-Colorado, Nueces (Upper and Lower Nueces, and Lower Frio watersheds), Nueces-Rio Grande (San Fernando watershed), Upper San Antonio, and San Antonio-Nueces (Aransas and Aransas Bay watersheds) river basins.
Much below normal streamflow (less than the 10 percentile) was seen in the Upper Red (Lower Prairie Dog Town Fork and Southern Beaver watersheds), Middle Colorado, Lavaca (Navidad watershed), Pecos, San Antonio (Medina watershed), Guadalupe, Nueces, Nueces-Rio Grande, San Antonio-Nueces (Mission watershed) river basins. A record low was seen in the Colorado river basin (Pedernales watershed) The TWDB, in partnership with its cooperators, continues to install and monitor automatic water level recorders in monitoring wells throughout the state. An automatic groundwater level recorder well, or recorder well, refers to a water well installed with water level recording equipment, a datalogger, and satellite or cellular transmitter. The selection and distribution of the 18 wells shown in this report are based on several considerations: key areas of drawdown and recovery, areas where local conditions are affected by recurring pumping cycles or seasonal activities, wells with a means of triggering drought conditions, and site availability.
The spatial distribution of recorder wells attempts to capture broader conditions and trends representative of each aquifer while also highlighting areas of particular interest.
The hydrographs provided in this report show a five-year history. For more information and to view full periods of record for available hydrographs, please visit Water Data for Texas.
Water level measurements were available for 18 key monitoring wells in the state. Water levels rose in 14 monitoring wells since the beginning of December, with an increase of .10' in the Lamb County Ogallala Aquifer well to 9.52' in the Pecos County Edwards-Trinity (Plateau) Aquifer well.
Water levels declined in four monitoring wells, ranging from a decline of -0.20' in the Bell County Edwards (BFZ) Aquifer well to 0.70' in the Bexar County Edwards (BFZ) Aquifer well. The J17 well in San Antonio recorded a water level of 103.80' below land surface or 627.20' above mean sea level. Water levels are 2.80' below the Stage 4 critical management levels for the San Antonio portion of the Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone) Aquifer. The Edwards Aquifer Authority Stage 4 permit reductions remain in effect as a result of well J-17 water levels and area spring flow levels.