US Drought Monitor and Summary, April 24, 2018

A striking contrast between drought and non-drought areas persisted in a southwest-to-northeast oriented band stretching across north-central Texas and central Oklahoma. Rain provided modest drought relief in Oklahoma and northern Texas but did not reach most of the region’s other drought-affected areas. Amarillo received precipitation totaling 0.49 inch on April 20-21, boosting its year-to-date total to 0.74 of an inch (20 percent of normal). Meanwhile, some expansion of dryness (D0) and moderate to extreme drought (D1 to D3) was observed across western, central, and southern Texas. By April 22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicated that topsoil moisture was rated 67 percent very short to short in Texas and 53 percent very short to short in Oklahoma.
The value in Oklahoma represented a 19-point improvement from the previous week’s value of 72 percent very short to short. The southern Plains’ rain also aided wildfire containment efforts. Through April 24, U.S. year-to-date wildfires had consumed 0.96 million acres of vegetation, compared to the 10-year average of 0.85 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Read more at http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu.