The Herald-Zeitung

Comal County is on the way to entering its driest two-year period in history, weather officials said.

The record-setting drought is parching crops and livestock, drying up lakes and rivers, and creating hazardous burning conditions.

“We’re now in the driest 23-month period in history on record,” National Weather Service forecaster Chris Morris said. “The chance for rain coming up is very slim. You might see some in the western counties and the extreme east, but not over New Braunfels soon.”

Light rains fell on parts of the county this week. Less than .1 inch was recorded this weekend in New Braunfels. Officials say it’s not enough to bring the area out of these desolate conditions.

“Basically as far as production goes, we didn’t make any crops this year,” Comal County Extension Agent Glenn Avriett said. “The corn and grain sorghum isn’t even harvestable. I’ve heard of one guy in the county that harvested corn, but he only got 20 bushels to the acre. On an average year, a farmer could produce 65 to 70 bushels to an acre.”

Nearly every crop planted since fall of this past year has failed, Avriett said.

“The oats and wheat planted in the fall are all gone,” he said. “They sprang up a little with the bit of rain we had, but with no moisture they all just failed.”

People around the county have had to sell livestock because of the drought, he said.

“There’s not enough grass for them to graze,” he explained. “Feed costs are too high. People can’t hardly haul enough water to feed all their cattle.”

One couple — Fred and Agnes Dreibodt — have raised cattle in Zorn for 48 years. They said they had never seen drought conditions this bad in the area.

“We have seven tanks or water ponds for the cows to drink from around the property. They’re all dry,” Agnes Dreibodt said. “They’ve never gone dry, and now they’re all dry.”

Since the tanks started drying up, the Dreibodts have had to haul in water, which Fred Dreibodt said was expensive.

With crops failing around them, they have also had to import hay to feed their cattle.

“A round bale of hay is about $60 to $70 with hauling,” Agnes Dreibodt said.

Between their 22 cows, they could end up spending almost $8,000 on feed hay in a year, she said.

“We’re just sick of waiting for rain every day and never seeing it come,” Fred said as he stood on a hill, surveying his dry, brown pastures. “We need a good, hard, slow rain.”

Firefighters around the county also are working double-time to counter the effects from the dry weather.

Comal County Fire Marshal Wayne Ellington presented commissioners court Thursday with the latest Keetch-Byram Drought Index numbers. The index measures fire danger probability based on soil moisture and other factors from a scale of 0 to 800.

“The highest part of the county is at 780,” Ellington said. “We’re quickly approaching 800. I don’t know what we’re going to do when it reaches 800 though, because that’s as high as the scale goes.”

The lack of rainfall has dried water sources in the area too.

Canyon Lake inches lower. As of Saturday it was about 894 feet above mean sea level, almost 15 feet below the normal lake level of 909 msl.

The Guadalupe River Saturday was flowing at 59 cubic feet per second at Sattler, according to the Water Oriented Recreation District Web site. The average flow for the river is 206 cfs.