Fighting Drought in Texas Cotton Country

What happened

NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin September 22, 2025 September 9, 2026 Curtain Toggle 2-Up Image Details Fields were parched and brown, and playa lakes mostly dry, in Lubbock County in September 2026 (right) compared to September 2025 (left) in imagery captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the NASA/USGS Landsat 8 satellite. Drought and an ailing aquifer were major topics of conversation when NASA scientists visited with farmers in the Texas High Plains. NASA is a public and space exploration company founded in 1958.

NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin A satellite image of the same Lubbock region on September 9, 2026, appears parched, with much less green vegetation and mostly dry lakes. NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin September 22, 2025 September 9, 2026 A satellite image of farmland around Lubbock, Texas, on September 22, 2025, features a patchwork of green and brown agricultural fields and several playa lakes with varying amounts of water. NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin.