Special Report: Is El Paso still in a drought?

weather experts say we are pulling out of the dry spell. as abc-7’s jerry najera found out — other weather watchers disagree. it’s tonight special report you don’t need to be an expert to know this region: is hot and dry el paso has seen drought conditions since the fall of 2010 that’s almost 5 years of harsh-even extreme temperatures with little rainfall. “you can go back throug history. we have records that go back a hundred years and you can find periods like this over and over” tom bird is a meteorologist for the national weather service. he says the droughts are cyclical and according to the texas water development board in austin -texas has experienced a drought in every decade of the 20th century and research shows decade-long droughts have happened in texas since the 1500s. but in recent months- parts of texas have been ravaged by rain. in el paso-residents have had to run for cover in new mexico-some have had to escape danger. but those damaging storms have also been good. “we went from a fairly severe drought to almost no drought now in almost a couple of months” bird tells me in april and may of this year most of the state received 2 to 5 times its normal precipitation. “that alone got us out of the drought we’ve been in for 4 and a half years” we notice maps by the u.s. drought monitor have been showing el paso is out of the drought since may… but others have a different perspective on the drought. the texas a and m forest service created something called the keetch byram drought index, or kbdi. that’s what the county used to guide its fireworks ban. “as far as the kbdi inde is concerned west texas and in particular the el paso area is showing that el paso is in a pretty moderate drought at this point” meteorologist juan acuna says the u.s drought monitor maps look at the state as a whole. but the k-b-d-i index –which is often used to predict wildfire potential — is more specific. so while they may not agree on whether the drought is over yet — both agencies believe the region is in a delicate balance when it comes to water. “officials say even though we’v gotten plenty of rain and the river might look full our water levels are barely replenishing and drought conditions can still change” “this is n the time when we can start mismanaging water” bird says being water concious is still a necestity to let mother nature restore the thirsty landscape. jerry najera, abc-7. a meteorologist with the texas water development board told abc-7 it would take half a year of good precipitation for him to be comfortable in saying the drought is over. last night we told you county commissioner