Yeah, I've been there, but I also know where the crop growing regions are and where you are more limited and have to do livestock.
Even then your average rainfall over a 10 year period will usually remove the whole state from the category of "desert".
I think it's more accurate to describe the non agricultural regions in West Texas "semi arid" with some small "arid" parts.
Yes, I've been in Elpaso when it rained, Odessa when it rained, Austin when it rained, Dallas when it rained, Houston when it rained (certainly not news eh) and even Waco when it rained.
On one stupid trip a bunch of us ended up in Houston when it DID NOT RAIN ~ that was a most memorable trip. Our plane pulled out to get in line and stayed there three hours while somebody did something ~ so they pulled the liquor cabinet open and we all drank for free.
We were supposed to go to San Antonio once for a couple of weeks but that got cancelled and our guy from San An came up to meet us for training.
BTW, much of Texas has this problem the Mid-Atlantic has. If you didn't get hurricanes every now and then you'd be semi-arid. Georgia is beginning to fall into that category ~ mostly due to water demand. If they only had 100,000 folks they'd have enough water.
So what were you saying about the mileage on the Rio? Take a look at it ~ look at just the part adjacent to Texas ~ not that part running up through New Mexico, et al, just your part. It flows into Elpaso ~ which is already a semi-arid region, not a desert, and less than halfway to its termination on the Gulf it's in sub-tropical areas with plenty of rain. You can actually SEE this from the air ~ it's pretty obvious at the 100th Meridian. One side gets 20 inches of rain or more per year and the other side gets less. There's also the Caprock Escarpment that marks the edge of the Llano Estacado. But the Llano is NOT exactly "desert", just a bit more elevated. Plus the caliche clay deposits give it a different color.
These features are all visible from the air, and less so on the ground ~ plus, the tacos are better in Elpaso.
Only problems I ever had in Texas occurred when we'd be trapped downtown and have to be dependent on the hotel restaurants for meals ~ (problem with having all your major postal facilities in the business districts).
Did I miss something? How about my old girlfriend in Waco?