Austin, TX
Texas weather: Will forecasted rain put a dent in drought?
AUSTIN, Texas – In December, the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District declared Stage IV Exceptional Drought for the first time in its history.
With rain forecasted for Central Texas next week, the district will continue to monitor the Edwards Aquifer using two markers: Barton Springs and the Lovelady Monitor Well.
“What I’m most excited about for the forecast is this notion of maybe a prolonged period, multiple days of rain, and that’s what we really need,” said Dr. Tim Loftus, general manager of BSEACD. “Four inches that falls in one hour versus four inches that falls over two days has a very different effect on the relationship between what runs off and what actually soaks into the ground.”
Loftus said all eyes will be on Lovelady to see how it responds. Right now, it is just under the Stage IV threshold.
“It may be a couple of weeks before we really have a good feel because Lovelady’s response is definitely more muted than flow at Barton Springs,” said Loftus.
Exceptional drought declared in central Texas
For the first time in its 36-year history, the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District is declaring a stage four exceptional drought.
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The Highland Lakes serve as another primary water source for Central Texas, including the City of Austin.
The forecast there is less hopeful.
“Everything that we’re seeing is that it’s not going to rain where we need it to…we need it to rain in the watershed. We need above Burnet and Llano to get rain so it can flow down,” said Shannon Hamilton, executive director of the Central Texas Water Coalition. “It’s going to take 8 to 10 inches over the watershed for us really to make a dent in our lakes.”
Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan are currently 42% full, according to LCRA.
The graph below shows historical water flow into these lakes.
Hamilton noted their hydrologist is projecting mandatory water cut-offs by next October if water levels and inflows don’t improve.
“Our water management plan depends on historical averages, but we don’t have that any longer,” said Hamilton. “The new trend is much less water coming in, and that’s what we have to plan for.”
Hamilton emphasized the importance of year-round water conservation.
In the wintertime, that may mean quickly fixing broken pipes or putting time limits on hot showers.
“Be mindful that when it comes above freezing, and you can turn off your faucets (after dripping), go turn them back off. And everybody’s irrigation system should be off right now,” said Hamilton. “So it’s little things, but all those things add up because we are still dropping – every day we’re dropping.”
This month, BSEACD announced the installation of two new monitoring wells beginning in January. One will be located in Garrison Park and one will be in Zilker Park.
The Garrison well will be “used to collect Edwards Aquifer water level and water quality data,” according to BSEACD. The Zilker well will be a multiport well that is “capable of monitoring multiple aquifer zones, providing a more in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the aquifer at hand.”
AUSTIN, Texas – A 20-year-old was arrested and charged with murder for a deadly shooting at the Cambria Hotel in downtown Austin, police said.
What we know:
Police said on Monday, Jan. 5, around 6:55 a.m., officers responded to a report of a gunshot at the Cambria Hotel at 68 East Avenue #824. The caller said a person had been shot.
When officers arrived, they found a man with injuries. He later died at the scene. He was identified as Luke Bradburn.
The investigation revealed that Bradburn drove and crashed a car that belonged to 20-year-old Maximillian Salinas. After the crash, Bradburn and the other people in the car left and went to the Cambria Hotel.
Salinas went to the hotel and shot Bradburn.
On Jan. 6, Salinas was arrested and charged with murder.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Austin Police at 512-974-TIPS. You may submit your tip anonymously through the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program by visiting austincrimestoppers.org or calling 512-472-8477.
The Source: Information from the Austin Police Department
Chants of “shame” and “ICE out of Texas” rang through the street as Austin-area activists joined thousands across the nation in protesting the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
The protest was held in front of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security building in Pflugerville.
Good, 37, was shot in her SUV while attempting to drive away from several ICE officers who ordered her to exit her vehicle.
Scarleth Lopez with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the organization that led the protest, said the videos of the shooting in Minneapolis were “sickening.”
“Trump has lied and and said that Renee was a terrorist. She was a mother. She was an innocent bystander,” Lopez said. “We must organize to stop these people from kidnapping and murdering.”
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Elizabeth Bope, a retired Pflugerville ISD teacher, said the claims from federal and state lawmakers that Good was attempting to strike the ICE agent with her vehicle inspired her to attend the protest.
Such claims were posted online by Vice President J.D. Vance and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Attorney General Ken Paxton reposted a statement from DHS on X, formerly known as Twitter, that said the ICE agent “relied on his training and saved his own life.”
“It’s beyond really any words that they killed this woman for no reason, but also that they’re lying about it,” Bope said. “I’m not even a radical left person, I’m just a regular old Democrat.”
Other key Texas leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have not commented on the shooting.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Doug Tickner, who said he works for a home building company in Austin, said he felt it was important to show up in person for Good.
“I don’t really think of Minneapolis as being that far from here, and it’s not like what happened in Minneapolis was some sort of one off unique event,” Tickner said. “This is part of a pattern, and I feel folks better wake up and realize that this is becoming more and more serious.”
The news that federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon, broke hours before the protest.
The gathering in Pflugerville is among the first of four anti-ICE demonstrations planned across the Austin area over the next few days.
Earlier on Thursday, protesters gathered at the intersection of 45th Street and Lamar Boulevard during rush hour. A protest on Friday will be held at the Capitol and another will be held Saturday at City Hall.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
State and federal leaders are now sparring over who should conduct an investigation into the Minneapolis shooting, according to NPR.
Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which was originally asked to conduct a joint investigation with the FBI, said in a statement it was later told the investigation would be led solely by federal authorities.
AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas agency is concerned that the flesh-eating New World screwworm could be getting closer to Texas without commercial livestock movement.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is sounding the alarm again for livestock owners to remain vigilant in watching for signs of the parasite in their animals.
Screwworm sighting near Texas
The latest:
Miller said in a Thursday release that a screwworm had been detected in a cow in González, Tamaulipas, a little more than 200 miles from the southern Texas border.
According to the commissioner, the cow had no reported history of movement outside Tamaulipas, and is the third active case reported there.
Officials in Mexico have not reported a known population of the worm in Tamaulipas. They’re working with U.S. authorities to investigate further into the new case.
What they’re saying:
“The screwworm now may be moving closer on its own, with no apparent link to commercial animal movement,” Commissioner Miller said. “Texas producers must act now—stay informed, stay vigilant, and prepare immediately. We cannot drop our guard for even a moment.”
Inspect livestock for screwworm
What you can do:
Miller urged immediate action from ranchers along the Texas border.
“Inspect your animals daily,” Miller said. “Check every open wound. If anything looks suspicious, report it right away. Better a false alarm than a delayed response—early detection and rapid reporting are our strongest defenses against this devastating pest.”
U.S. plan to fight screwworm in Texas
Big picture view:
The threat to cattle has been deemed so potentially devastating to the U.S. food supply that the federal government is committing $850 million to fight it.
Most of that money will be spent on building a sterile male fly production facility near the border.
The facility will produce 300 million sterile male flies a week to be dropped into target areas where the screwworm is now. Those male flies help to reduce the population size through mating without reproducing.
A much smaller portion of the funding will be used for screwworm detection technology.
In addition, the federal government has already spent $21 million on a sterile fly production facility in Mexico.
What are New World screwworms?
Dig deeper:
The insect gets its name because it’s only found in the Americas.
It lays its eggs in the open wounds of animals, and its larvae become parasites, threatening livestock, domestic animals, and even people.
The screwworm was mostly eradicated in Texas and the rest of the United States in the 60s. But now, it’s moving north up from Panama and has a known presence a little over 300 miles south of the Texas-Mexico border.
The Source: Information in this article comes from Sid Miller.
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