By Brad Kellar
– A couple of Northeast Texas counties are the driest in the state according to the Keetch-Byram Drought Severity Index.
The index, which measures soil moisture, recently showed an average reading for Rains and Hunt counties at 676 and 675, respectively.
A reading of 800 is the highest on the scale, meaning it would take eight or more inches of rainfall to bring the soil to saturation.
As of yesterday, more than 60 counties in the state listed an average reading of 575 or higher. Over 90 percent of those counties were in either Northeast or East Texas.