With colder months approaching, the little rain storms Hockley county and surrounding west Texas areas are continuing to benefit the land. However, drought conditions are still an issue for the west Texas area. Currently, the bulk of Hockley, Cochran and Lubbock County are sitting at the severe drought level. As farmers are preparing for harvest, the rain does not impact the crop for this year. The rainfall that has hit the area does help the soil for next years crop as well has present problems for farmers who have weed growing along side their current crop. With the past rainstorms from last week, Levelland and areas west, north and south have seen close to an inch in accumulation according to TexMesonet. Areas such as Smyer going into Lubbock County have accumulated rainfall closer to an inch and a half. Hockley County and Levelland Emergency Management Coordinator Cole Kirkland explained that rain is always welcomed especially with the drought the area has sustained. As the rain continues is short spurts, the growth of vegetation before the first freeze means more fuel for fires in the winter. “Rain is always good, but we are going to have a little more vegetation going into winter,” explained Kirkland. “To have rain now for it to produce growth means it will go dormant or die quickly creates more fuel for the fire in the winter.” The conditions many are facing due to the drought are not comparable to the past as it has brought the worst crop surpassing the conditions of 2011. However, the timing of the rain received hasn’t been ideal.
“We want the rain, but as quick as it is fixing to go dormant, we are going to be in a bind on the backside as far as fire risk,” said Kirkland. Currently, the light rain storms have been the best of both worlds as heavy showers would increase growth drastically. “We are getting the best of both worlds right now if the rain storms stay like this,” said Kirkland. “This will definitely help us in the Spring time especially if we continue to get these lighter rain storm events.”
As far as fire risk for the coming winter, Kirkland explained that the area is trending toward a warmer, dryer winter. “The wind is always going to blow and the humidity will most likely not be high,” said Kirkland “When the humidity level drops below 15 percent that is when we got those high fire danger days. Any warm, windy weather with low humidity now that we will have extra fuel loading in the next coming weeks is going to make things potentially volatile for us.”
Kirkland also added that the rain was well received by the ranchers in the region. “One thing that has been pushed through is the emergency grazing authorization for the beef and agriculture industry,” explained Kirkland. “Fortunately, there are a lot of cows that need to be fed through the winter.”
Those grazing authorization are what is currently keep fuel levels down across the region.
Some areas around oilfield leases are not heavily grazed due to it being difficult keeping cows away from pump jacks.
“As far as range fires there will be fuel loading in the oil field because there is not a whole lot we can do to prevent that other than shredding or grazing,” said Kirkland. “At that point, it is just a matter of finding someone who is willing to do that as it’s time consuming and there is not a lot of money in it.”