At the height of this summer’s extreme drought, a part of the Brazos River ran dry in Knox County, Texas. In some parts of the state, public officials and utilities adjusted water use rules and urged residents to conserve.

Texas is officially in the midst of its most severe one-year drought on record. Some areas in the extreme west, south and southeast areas of the state have seen some relief from recent rains, but other locations are so dry that it would take as much as 20 inches of rain in one month to bring conditions back to normal.

For more on the dry conditions in summer 2011, see Drought Baking the Southern United States.