US Drought Monitor and Summary, March 7, 2017

Rains over southern Texas allowed for improvements to moderate drought and abnormally dry conditions. In northeast Texas, dry conditions allowed for the expansion of abnormally dry conditions as well as a slight expansion of moderate and severe drought along the Texas and Oklahoma borders. Over the last several weeks, impacts to agriculture and rangeland over Oklahoma due to drought increased quickly. Several deadly wildfires also brought hardships to the region. Any moisture in western Oklahoma was quickly evaporated with the warm and windy conditions. In response to the changing conditions, a new area of extreme drought was introduced into the panhandle of Oklahoma, with moderate and severe drought expanding as well in both the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. Severe drought was expanded over northern and eastern Oklahoma too. Read more…