Lake Fire
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Texans knows all about heat and drought, but this year took the cake and then burned it to a crisp. Hi I'm Dave Thurlow for the Weather Notebook.

The year 2000 brought some of the hottest, driest weather ever seen in the Lone Star State. It took a while for the heat to build up. Until June, it was more or less a typical year in Texas: thunderstorms, sunshine, warmth, and wind. Then the tap was shut off and the heat switched on. It didn't rain at all in Dallas-Fort Worth from June 30th until September 23rd. This streak of 84 bone-dry days set an all-time record. On Labor Day weekend south Texas saw the mercury climb to 107 in Corpus Christi, 109 in Houston, 111 in San Antonio, and 112 in Austin.

But for sheer mythological power, you can't top what happened in San Angelo, Texas. By early summer, several lakes around town had dropped to less than 10 percent of their capacity. The weeds that sprouted in the lake beds soon became tinder-dry, and the result was a Biblical nightmare: The lake beds soon, instead of holding water, held a raging blaze. Fire trucks actually had to drive into the dry bed of Twin Buttes Lake to fight a grass fire that covered acres. This scene was replayed several times over the summer.

Texas did get some rain later in the fallso the lakes are againlakes, but like much of the South, the state is still fighting a two-year dry spell. It will take a lot more time and water to get rid of the drought than it did to douse the fiery lakes.

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