Where does Texas start to get arid and desertish and what does it look like?

[nmdesert]

"Where does Texas start to get arid and desertish and what does it look like?"

On all my trips between New Mexico or El Paso and the I-35 corridor cities, it varies depending on the direction you come from...east where it's much greener and west where it's much drier. The year being wetter or drier matters some, but not so much as seeing thick grasses or tree groves.

On average: arid with more shrubs or sparse grassland lies west of about Odessa and then along the Pecos Valley, and finally just east of the Rio Grande to about Falcon Lake.

An interesting part of this is where warm, humid Gulf air more than not overlaps the arid and desertish areas, which begins just east of Dryden in Terrell County. The change from gray Texas Sage and acacia brush to olive Creosote Bush coincides, which is probably where south Texas brush country on the Rio Grande Plains becomes Chihuahuan Desert.

[C24L]

Originally Posted by HellaFool

Please do tell.

the Trans-Pecos area is the only true desert part of the state.Its starts getting desertish to me around Abilene/San Angelo to me......Midessa is further west and drier in that transition zone than Abilene and San Angelo.

[malcorub16]

Using IH 10 as a reference and coming from Houston/San Antonio westward, I would say the last town before the terrain turns arid, dry and brown is Ozona, Texas. Ozona still has that green hill country look and feel to it but west of that its mostly arid and brown.

[RJ312]

Go look at a satellite image on Google Maps and the answer is obvious.

I would say west of Sweetwater along I-20, west of Sonora or Ozona along I-10 and west of San Angelo. The further west one goes in Texas, the more arid it is.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by RJ312

Go look at a satellite image on Google Maps and the answer is obvious.

I would say west of Sweetwater along I-20, west of Sonora or Ozona along I-10 and west of San Angelo. The further west one goes in Texas, the more arid it is.

Generally yes, but there's also a northward limit between Lubbock and Midessa where semidesert scrub turns to prairie grasses that are technically not "desert" vegetation even though the climate is fairly dry. Would one call the Panhandle "arid" in terms of vegetation? Early settlers did, but they were probably just not aware of how much more "desert-y" it gets the deeper into the West you go.