Travis County Commissioners Court
July 7, 2009,
Item 3
Item number 3 is consider and take appropriate action -- by the way, we will postpone item number 28 until next week.
that's the enter local with the leaned independent school district for school resource officers.
postponed until next week.
3 is to consider and take appropriate action regarding the prohibition of outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
her shell lee with Travis County fire marshal's office and pete baldwin with emergency management.
the current ban is in effect and set to expire July 22.
the rains we received last week were helpful even more so than what we thought they would be and did reduce our drought index down to the low 500s.
since that time that drought index has come back up.
today it is currently 519, which is above the bench mark where we normally consider an outdoor burn ban.
and this is average for across the county.
the 14-day outlook for Travis County has us in the 600 to 700 kdbi range.
there are no significant rains in the forecast beyond the showers we had this morning.
there are some light thunderstorms expected occasionally with daytime heating which is expected to go back up.
so our recommendation at this time is to leave the burn ban in place.
>> questions?
i guess we ought to keep carrying this from week to week just in case.
>> yes, sir.
>> there's a dramatic change.
>> that would be fine, yes, sir.
>> something real quick, pete baldwin, emergency management.
we need to make sure we don't get confused between the drought index, which is an indication of fire behavior and how dry it is and how much -- or what kind of activity the fire would be if it got started, but we also need to keep in mind that under the palmer drought, the u.s.
drought index, we are still in an exceptional drought.
even with these rains, that kbdi will go up and down, but due to the lack of soil moisture, we are still in what is considered to be an exceptional drought.
and we're beginning to see more and more of the long-term effects of that on the agricultural community out there.
so just keep in mind when we're talking about the keechbyrum drought index, keep in find that relates to fire behavior.
however, keep in mind the drought which is that unseen, constantly moving disaster that we have out there going right now.
>> mr.
baldwin, what -- when did the drought begin?
i've heard conflicting reports on, you know, the hindsight as to when the drought actually began.
>> that's actually debatable and I would turn that debate over to meteorologists rather than me, but most people I've talked to said it actually started, we started going into a deficit of rainfall about two years ago.
and the thing about a drought is you will be in a deficit and then you will have a heavy downpour and everybody thinks it's over, but the fact is until you get the sustained annual rainfall and replenish that soil moisture and your aquifers and things of that nature, then no.
so the -- what I've heard is it probably started about two years ago.
>> okay.
thank you.
>> we'll have it back on next week.
thank you.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 1:31 PM