South Region: Areas of the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles had improvements this week as the rains continued in the short term and continue to improve the longer-term issues that allowed exceptional drought to be removed in Oklahoma. Severe drought was introduced into northeast Oklahoma, and abnormally dry and moderate drought were also expanded. 

In Texas, conditions improved along the Gulf Coast and Rio Grande regions where exceptional drought was eliminated and extreme drought contracted. Northeast Texas also saw some improvements to moderate and severe drought while abnormally dry conditions were also improved in East Texas. In Central Texas, severe drought was introduced and moderate drought expanded, and extreme drought was expanded in northern Texas. West Texas had moderate drought introduced, while other areas had improvements to abnormally dry and moderate drought conditions.

Looking Ahead: Over the next 5-7 days, the active precipitation pattern is expected to continue over the Southwest and into southern Colorado. The Central Plains and Upper Midwest as well as areas of the southeast also should see widespread rain. Temperatures will be warmest over the West and Great Basin as well as over most of the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast, with departures 6-9 degrees above normal in the West and 3-6 degrees above normal over the East.

The 6-10 day outlooks show that greatest probabilities of above-normal temperatures are in the West and also from the southern Plains through the Midwest and across much of the East, while much of the central Plains and Alaska have the best probabilities of below-normal temperatures. The greatest probabilities of above-normal precipitation are from the Southwest into the central Plains and into the Mid-Atlantic and New England. The highest probabilities of below-normal precipitation are in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountains, the northern Plains and much of Texas.

Read more at http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/