HONDO, Texas – Farmer Ken Graff’s weeds are dying due to drought conditions.
“You never see these weeds die,” Graff said. “You have to fight them all the time because they’re such deep rooted. But now they’re falling over, wilting dead.”
The extreme drought prevented Graff from opening his main source of income, South Texas Corn Maze, last fall in Hondo.
Even with the forecasted inch of widespread rain expected across the area this week, he said they need something more significant.
“Yeah, an inch will be nice, but it’s going to take months of rainfall and runoff to turn this thing around,” Graff said.
While this week’s rain will help improve the surface soil’s conditions, Paul Bertetti, senior director of aquifer science research and modeling for Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA), said it won’t be enough.
“It’s unlikely to have a significant impact on the aquifer,” Bertetti said. “It will raise levels certainly, but we’ll still be low and under restrictions.”
Since about 2019, the region has been about 60 feet below normal rainfall.
“That’s two years’ worth of rainfall we’ve been short of for three years,” Bertetti said.
The U.S. Drought Monitor’s Texas map shows a large red dot across Bexar, Medina, Bandera, Kendall and Comal counties, placing the area in extreme drought for more than two years.
“We’re in the donut hole,” Graff said. “(The rain) comes to us. You can see it, smell it, almost touch it, but it will not rain.”
This year marks the second-lowest start for the Edwards Aquifer since the 1930s, Bertetti said.
Despite the challenges, Graff remains hopeful.
“We’ve just got to pray to the good Lord to send us a drink,” Graff said. “We’ll get it one of these days. And that’s just the way I have to approach it. ... One of these days it’s going to turn around, so just have to bear with it ‘til then.”