Harrison County Leads State in Drought Index

MARSHALL — An East Texas county achieves a dubious distinction. Harrison County has been under an outdoor burn ban for several weeks — and County Judge Hugh Taylor says at the current time, its drought index is the highest in Texas. According to the judge, “Where we enter a burn ban generally at 575 on the KBDI (Keetch-Byram Drought Index), the entire county far exceeds 600 — and 25 per cent of the county actually exceeds 700. The highest number on the index is 800.” Taylor said the reason other regions of the state have seen their index numbers on the KBDI go down has to do with tropical moisture that fell across West Texas, North Texas, and Central Texas recently, but missed East Texas completely.