This Week’s Drought Summary
High pressure dominated across much of the central U.S. this week, bringing much below-normal temperatures (more than 10°F below-normal) to the Eastern Rockies, Great Plains, and parts of the Mississippi Valley. Much of the north-central U.S. remained below freezing last week. However, where daytime high temperatures did average above the freezing mark, below-normal precipitation and high winds resulted in some drought degradation across parts of the Great Plains. A series of low pressure systems moving across the southern and eastern U.S throughout this week brought heavy rainfall to parts of the Gulf Coast states and Eastern Seaboard, leading to drought improvements. Northern Florida received the greatest rainfall amounts, with several areas picking up anywhere from 5 to 10 inches of rain through Saturday. The strongest of these storm systems also brought snowfall to the Appalachians and interior areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Friday into Saturday. In the Pacific Northwest, a series of storms brought some drought improvements to parts of the central Cascades and interior northern Rockies. Farther south across California, drought intensified this week due to mounting deficits since the beginning of the year.
South
A series of low pressure systems, tracking across the Gulf Coast states throughout this week, resulted in heavy rainfall across parts of eastern Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley, leading to broad 1-category improvements where the heaviest rains fell. Some parts of central Louisiana and west-central Mississippi received more than 5 inches of rainfall. Despite year-to-date rainfall deficits being reduced to near zero for several locations and USGS average stream flow running near-normal, soil moisture still ranks between the 5th and 10th percentile of the climatological distribution. This indicates that drought is still firmly entrenched across the Lower Mississippi Valley and that more rainfall will be needed to continue to see meaningful improvements. Farther west across central Texas and parts of Oklahoma, drought continued to intensify. Conversely, high winds and below-normal precipitation prevailed across central Texas and western Oklahoma this week, leading to continued drought degradation. Fire risk remains a concern across many of these areas.