Nationwide
In contrast to the prior week, most of the country had a relatively dry week, with the significant exception of the Pacific Northwest and northern Intermountain West. Amounts over 1.5 inches were common, with parts of the Cascades and the coastline recording 4 to 8 inches of precipitation.
Areas from the upper Midwest eastward through the Great Lakes Region and lower Northeast recorded 0.25 to locally 1.0 inch, but the entire remainder of the nation received little or none. But given the time of year, the dry week did not lead to widespread deterioration. Most areas did not change, and significant improvement was limited to the Pacific Northwest.
The West
[inline_image file=”72cbb0b4f5965cddc96f0a73a6f9f4c0.jpg” caption=”20210119_West_trd.jpg”]
In stark contrast to areas farther east and south, heavy precipitation was dropped on parts of the Pacific Northwest and the northern Intermountain West.
Much of the Idaho Panhandle and adjacent parts of Montana reported heavy precipitation, with the highest elevations measuring up to 4 inches. Farther west, heavy precipitation also soaked the Cascades and the Pacific Coast from Washington southward to northwestern California. Most of these areas – including lower elevations between the Cascades and the coastal areas – recorded at least 1.5 inches of precipitation, while parts of the higher elevations were covered by 4 to locally 8 inches of precipitation.
Patches of improvement were introduced as a result, with D3 removed entirely from central Washington and spotty reductions in the D0 to D3 coverage across Oregon and northwesternmost California. With large sections of the central and southern parts of the West Region already in D3 to D4, not much more deterioration can be introduced, but a few small areas deteriorated enough to be reflected on the map, specifically north-central Utah (to D2), interior northeastern Utah (to D4), and southeasternmost New Mexico along the Mexican border (to D4).
The High Plains
[inline_image file=”b9a68c8d495024a61beabbbaea8d02b6.jpg” caption=”20210119_High_Plains_trd.jpg”]
Similar to conditions in other regions, little or no precipitation was observed this week, outside parts of eastern North Dakota. Almost the entire region was unchanged compared to last week, keeping most areas intact. Exceptions were found in eastern North Dakota, where light precipitation was sufficient to reduce the extent of D2 conditions. Farther west, small areas of deterioration were noted in north-central Wyoming (to D1) and the west-central Dakotas (deteriorating to D1-D2).
The South
[inline_image file=”7b217ad22a70569777a72aebf0c441eb.jpg” caption=”20210119_South_trd.jpg”]
Little or no precipitation fell region-wide, leading to a few deterioration areas in southern and western Texas. D2 to D4 conditions have become entrenched. Meanwhile, the dry weather led to abnormal dryness through much of Tennessee and large sections of Mississippi. Smaller areas developed in Arkansas and Louisiana. Since mid-October 2020, between 4 and 8 inches less precipitation than average in a swath from northeastern Louisiana through northwestern Mississippi and western Tennessee. —UNL Drought Monitor
Drought.gov launches revamped website
At the start of 2021, the National Integrated Drought Information System unveiled a redesigned drought.gov website “to better serve stakeholders, decision makers, the media and the public,” according to a news release.
NIDIS executive director Veva Deheza said the redesigned U.S. drought portal “provides numerous decision support resources to enable communities and economies across the United States in efforts to strengthen their resilience to drought.”
Utilizing information from the U.S. Drought Monitor and the National Drought Mitigation Center among its data resources, drought.gov “features updated content and new interactive architecture designed to provide actionable, shareable information and easy-to-understand graphics describing current drought conditions and forecasts by city, county, state, zip code and at watershed to global scales,” the release states.
[inline_image file=”008e177b2f3d8261ba5c878034bb9435.png” caption=”814prcp.new (13).gif”]
