Blanco County continues to be in drought conditions as it enters 2025.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, issued Jan. 1,2025, shows the entire county in some form of drought. All of Blanco County has been in some form of drought since the Oct. 8, 2024, drought monitor.
Current conditions show that 28.8 percent of Blanco County is in extreme drought, the fourth of five steps on the drought monitor. Another 19.66 percent of the county is in severe drought, the midpoint of the monitor, while 51.54 percent is listed at moderate drought, the second of five steps. Blanco County has been listed in these conditions since the Nov. 5, 2024, monitor.
The last time that there was no drought present in Blanco County was in the Nov. 30, 2021 drought monitor. The next week, 80.63 percent of the county moved into the abnormally dry category, the first step on the monitor.
Portions of Blanco County showed no drought for 17 weeks in 2024. The last time a portion of the county didn’t show drought was recorded in the Oct. 1, 2024 monitor, when that number was 35.24 percent. For a three-week period in the fall, no drought was present in over 80 percent of the county. The Sept. 10 and Sept. 17 monitors showed that 81.67 percent of the county had no drought, which was the highest percentage of no drought present for 2024. That percentage dropped slightly to 81.55 percent in the Sept. 24 drought monitor and fell to 35.24 percent the following week, before going to zero with the Oct. 8 drought monitor.
While Blanco County has been in some form of drought throughout 2024, it wasn’t as severe in the second half of the year. The last time more than half of the county has been listed in severe drought or higher was the May 28, 2024 drought monitor. At that time, 64.47 percent of the county was in severe or extreme drought, the third and fourth steps on the monitor. More than half of Blanco County was listed in severe drought or higher each week of 2024 through the May 28 drought monitor, but hasn’t been since the calendar turned to June 2024.
Blanco County was listed in the 500-600 range Monday for the Keetch-Byram Drought Index. That’s the fifth of seven steps on the index. The county’s average on the index was 574, up one point from Sunday. Monday’s low point on the index was 472, while the high point on the index was 661.
The observed fire danger was high Sunday in Blanco County, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The fire danger forecast for Monday through Wednesday was listed as moderate each day.
Blanco County remains in a county-wide burn ban through noon on Jan. 14, 2025.
