During the election season there is always a lot of discussion as to whether states are red or blue.  When it comes to all seasons, however, colors that you don't want your state to be are yellow, red, and brown, at least according to the United States Drought Monitor

Over the past 2 months, the eastern third of Texas has been somewhat drier than normal and this has led to various levels of dry and drought conditions.  The latest drought index released on October 27th shows bright yellow shaded counties such as Angelina and Nacogdoches to be considered abnormally dry areas.  Those counties in more of a tan shade are categorized as moderate drought areas. Smith, Gregg, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby, and Panola counties fall into that classification.  However, there are a few counties in northeast Texas that fall into the level which is considered severe drought.  A number of stock ponds are quite low and grazing conditions are poor in areas near Gilmer, Pittsburgh, and Mount Pleasant.  Those areas are shaded in an orange/brown mix.

Next on the list would be extreme drought followed by exceptional drought.  Thankfully, no areas of East Texas, or the entire state for that matter, have areas that are to that level of dryness...at least, not yet.

The Winter drought outlook for East Texas from Climate Prediction Center is not too promising as you can see in the graph below.  According to this data, most of East Texas will experience lower than normal precipitation which means drought conditions will persist or increase.

Of course, it should be noted that we're talking about predicting the weather in Texas.

Climate Prediction Center
Climate Prediction Center
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