More than half of Texas is now under a county burn ban, but Grayson County is not one of them.
The Texas A&M Forest Service's statewide list, updated at 9:13 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, shows 143 of the state's 254 counties with a ban in place. Grayson does not appear, and neither do the counties that border it on the Texas side: Collin, Fannin, Denton and Cooke.
The nearest bans are a county or two farther out. Rockwall, Ellis, Wise, Parker, Jack and Palo Pinto counties are on the list around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and Hopkins, Franklin and Red River counties are on it to the east. Harris, Travis and Bexar counties are among the large urban counties with bans.
Under state law, a county judge or commissioners court can put a ban in place when drought conditions exist, prohibiting or restricting outdoor burning, the forest service explains on its burn ban page.
How dry it is here
One of the measures counties look at is the Keetch-Byram Drought Index, which the forest service calculates for every county. The index runs from 0, meaning no loss of soil moisture, to 800, meaning completely dry conditions.
The forest service's county summary posted Tuesday puts Grayson's average at 482, with readings across the county ranging from 319 to 592. That average is 32 points lower than the prior reading.
Neighboring counties land in a similar range:
