Texas headed back into drought conditions

Longtime rancher Barbara Mazurek remembers watching her father fall into despair while trying to keep their Central Texas spread afloat during the state's worst drought in the 1950s. Now, looking across her parched ranch near the one where she grew up, those days don't seem so long ago. "It's beginning to look like that," the 72-year-old rancher said. "It was terrible. I remember that well." Despite hurricanes Dolly, Gustav and Ike soaking Texas in 2008, about 58 percent of the nation's second largest agricultural state is in some stage of drought, according to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor map, released Jan. 6. That's up from about 30 percent in mid-October. Parts of Central Texas and the Hill Country—about 4.2 percent of the state—are in exceptional drought, the most severe stage of dryness. Three months ago none of the state was that parched. Texas received an average of 24.6 inches of rain last year, the 31st driest year since 1884. That's 3.3 inches below the normal average of 27.9 inches. And conditions are expected to worsen before they improve....