Cold, wet weather great for peaches and cattle, but trees got hammered
For the peach growing Hutton family of Parker County, the cold and rainy weather that turned orchards into a winter wonderland points toward a strong crop later this year.
Leafy trees that were covered with ice, however, didn't fare as well.
"It's really perfect," said Jimmy Hutton, whose family has been in the peach business in 1981. "The cold weather keeps the fruit trees from blooming and the rain puts moisture in the trees. It gets the spring off to a good start."
A local rancher found favor with the weather as well.
Pete Bonds, who runs Bonds Ranch near Saginaw in northwestern Tarrant County, was getting ready to start shipping several thousand head of cattle to "grow yards" before the rains hit.
"It's a godsend," said Bonds, whose cattle business includes a 5,000-acre ranch near Marlin, a 6,000-acre ranch in Canadian and a 30,000-acre ranch in New Mexico. "It's sure going to give us a reprieve but it's not a pardon. It just buys us some time."
Bonds caution is warranted. He's not ready to say the drought is over, and neither are meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
While Bonds got 5 inches of rain at the ranch headquarters near Saginaw and other areas of Dallas-Fort Worth received between 4 and 7 inches. many other places — especially farming and ranching areas west and northwest of DFW — saw far less rainfall.
Bonds, who also leases land in other states, said dry conditions have been an issue from Georgia to California due to La Niña, the weather pattern off the coast of South America that typically brings warm, dry winters to the southern U.S.
"We still need a lot more rain out west," Bonds said. 'We have a ranch in New Mexico. We've had two inches total inches of snow this winter. We should have had two feet. I flew from Pueblo, Colorado to Arizona last week and I don't remember that front range ever being as devoid of snow."
'Still have plenty of winter to go'
Just a few miles east of the Hutton orchard, the wintry weather turned trees into giant icicles in and around Weatherford.
But as the ice melted, it also left behind damage to trees. Parker County Extension Agent Jay Kingston said there will need to be careful pruning "so as not to continue the injury to the tree."
Hardest hit were live oaks and junipers, which carry leaves throughout the winter. The added weight of the ice on the vegetation caused many tree limbs to break.
Still, the influx of moisture in Parker County was a dramatic shift from the dangerous wildfire a month ago that scorched more than 2,100 acres and shut down both Interstate 20 and Interstate 30.
Do these rains mean the end of the wildfire threat?
Not necessarily, said National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Huckaby.
The spring "green up" that begins in late March or early April usually signals the end of a winter fire season but the fire threat can extend into April.
On April 9, 2009, 205 wildfires broke out across 14 North Texas counties. In Montague County alone, seven separate wildfires torched 36,408 acres, destroyed 86 homes and killed four people, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
"The warm season vegetation is still dormant," Huckaby said. "You can have a bout of wet weather and then be dry a couple of weeks later. We still have plenty of winter to go."
'Still need some spring rains'
But although we're soaked now, that doesn't not mean that North Texas will see a wet spring.
The Climate Prediction Center's seasonal outlook for March, April and May continues to predict a warm, dry spring for Texas.
"You have these short time scales that's conducive to wet weather but the global pattern still favors us being drier than normal," Huckaby said. "We still need some spring rains to help us out."
State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said the primary beneficiaries of this week's rain were along a line from DFW to Houston and points eastward.
Most of the Texas Panhandle,which has been battling and extremely dry winter, saw no benefit.
Going forward, Nielsen-Gammon shared Huckaby's concerns about a dry summer.
"Unfortunately, the seasonal outlooks tend to keep things dry," Nielsen-Gammon said. "Going into summer, some of the newest data is showing enhanced chances for below normal rainfall."
That makes this two week pattern of wet weather — there's a chance of more rain next — even more valuable.
"It's an important aberration," Nielsen-Gammon said. "If we didn't have this we would have the potential for serious drought going forward.
The rainfall improved the local water supply, helping fill Lake Arlington, Lake Benbrook and bring Eagle Mountain Lake and Lake Worth close to full, said David Marshall, director of engineering and operations support for the Tarrant Regional Water District.
Marshall is more optimistic that the rains may signal a shift to a more normal springtime weather pattern, pointing to the Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society report that predicts a trend back to wet weather.
"I think we'll see some more rain," Marshall said. "What we saw this week was the first inkling of what the research institute was saying in its long-range forecast. I don't think we're going to above normal. It's just going to be a more normal spring-like rain."
Bill Hanna: 817-390-7698, @fwhanna
This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 12:23 PM with the headline "Cold, wet weather great for peaches and cattle, but trees got hammered."