As fires, drought take toll on Texas, Perry urges prayers for rain Drought grips all of Texas

Perry urges prayers for rainfall as wildfires take toll across the state

As wildfires ravage the state, Texas continues to get drier.

The latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor released on Thursday shows the entirety of Texas, 100 percent, in at least a moderate drought. All of Harris County is in at least a severe drought.

If conditions remain reasonably dry across the state until April 30, Texas has a shot at recording its driest seven-month period on record, said John Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist and a professor at Texas A&M University.

Emphasizing the danger posed by the wildfires, Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday issued an official proclamation urging Texans "of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers" for rains to end the drought and continuing threat posed by the fires.

Perry designated the three-day period from today to Sunday as "Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas."

"Throughout our history … Texans have been strengthened, assured and lifted up through prayers," the proclamation noted. "It seems right and fitting that the people of Texas should join together in prayer to humbly seek an end to this devastating drought and these dangerous wildfires."

Wildfires aside, Texas has been spared the worst effects so far because the drought has developed over the winter and spring months, Nielsen-Gammon said.

"The critical time for most of agriculture is now through July, when most crops are growing," he said. "If the state stays dry, there is the potential to have the worst drought since the 1950s.

"But there is still time for the rains to come in large-enough amounts to let farmers, ranchers, and water supplies survive the summer without too much difficulty."

No water restrictions yet

The upper Texas coast, including Houston, has a chance to see some relief on Monday and Tuesday, forecasters said. But only a chance as a cold front moves across Texas.

Even if an opportunity for significant rainfall does not materialize during the early to middle part of next week, long-range signals favor a better chance of showers and thunderstorms for Houston as the calendar moves though the first half of May, said Fred Schmude, a forecaster with ImpactWeather, a private Houston-based company.

Several cities in the greater Houston area have no immediate plans to implement water restriction measures, officials said.

For now, Conroe, Katy, Pasadena, Cleveland, Sugar Land, West University Place, Galveston, Dickinson and League City have no plans for mandatory water conservation measures, city officials said.

"Right now we're monitoring water usage," said Jody Hooks, superintendent of League City's Water Department. "We're probably closer than we'd like to be. How fast we get there (placing restrictions) is hard to say."

Reporters Patricia Kilday Hart from Austin and Robert Stanton contributed to this report.

eric.berger@chron.com