Livestock prices are up. In the first three months of last year, more than 1,500 wildfires scorched pastures and pine forests in a 52-county area of East Texas, according to the Texas Forest Service. This year, from January through March, an estimated 159 fires burned only 2,226 acres in that same East Texas region. Edgewood, about 60 miles east of Dallas, came within two weeks of running out of water last year. But rain is the biggest difference this.
Wildflowers are important to the tourist industry in Central Texas.
The flowers were a bust last year. This year, luminous bluebonnets and orange-red Indian paintbrushes are bursting with color. The Texas Water Development Board monitors 77 major reservoirs with a total water capacity of 34.5 million acre-feet. An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons and would cover a football field with one foot of water. The 77 lakes held 3.3 million more acre-feet of water this March than a year ago.