US Drought Monitor and Summary, Jan. 16, 2018

Moderate drought was improved over portions of eastern Texas. Despite the dry pattern over the last several weeks, the precipitation prevented further degradation in the rest of the Ark-La-Tex region. In the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, dryness continued and degradation was widespread. Extreme drought was pushed to the west in Oklahoma and south into the northeastern portion of the Texas panhandle. Severe drought was expanded to now cover all of the rest of Oklahoma and Texas Panhandle regions. Extreme drought was also expanded over northern Texas while moderate drought and abnormally dry conditions were expanded over most of the central portions of Texas. There have been widespread reports of very dry soils, poor winter wheat stands, and lack of grazing on wheat, as well as low stock ponds. Cover crops have failed throughout this region and reports are coming in of complete dryness in the soils down 3-4 feet. A new area of moderate drought was introduced into southern Texas. Read more at droughtmonitor.unl.edu.