Nationwide
Last week, heavy rain again fell on parts of the Nation’s Midsection along a strong quasi-stationary front.
A swath of heavy amounts (over 2 inches) extended from central Texas northeastward through eastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas, northwestern Arkansas, much of Missouri, and southern Illinois. The largest amounts (4 to locally 8 inches) covered a band extending from the Middle Red River Valley (south) into central Missouri. Further north, 2-4 inches also soaked much of southeastern Nebraska, eastern Iowa, and central and southwestern Wisconsin. More widely scattered amounts of 2-4 inches affected southeastern Texas, northern Louisiana, and the northern half of Alabama. Existing dryness and drought improved in most areas affected by heavy precipitation, in addition to portions of the central Rockies where less robust precipitation compounded frequently above-normal totals during the past several weeks.
Meanwhile, subnormal amounts contributed to intensifying drought and dryness in parts of the East Coast and scattered portions of the Southeast. East-central and southern Texas, parts of the central and northern Plains, and both the northern and southern tiers of the Rockies and adjacent lower elevations. In many areas where worsening conditions have been observed, unusually warm weather (temperatures generally 3-6°F above normal) has prevailed for the past four weeks, particularly across the southern half of the Great Plains, the Southeast, and the southern and middle Atlantic States.
The West
Moderate to locally heavy rain (generally 1 to 2.5 inches) fell in south-central Montana, but scattered to isolated moderate amounts, approaching an inch, were noted elsewhere in the state.
In other locations, several tenths of an inch of precipitation fell on and near some of the higher elevations, but most places reported little or none. Despite the moisture observed in parts of the state, the eastern and western sections of Montana experienced some D0 and D1 expansion, although the more severely affected areas (D2 to D3) remained unchanged.
Along the southern tier of the region, expansion of the broad-scale severe to extreme drought was noted in parts of New Mexico, southern Utah, and adjacent Arizona. The most intense levels of drought (D3 and D4) now cover a broad area, extending from southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah through much of Arizona, southern and western New Mexico, and the Texas Big Bend, into the south-central parts of the state.
The High Plains
Moderate to locally heavy precipitation (over 0.5 inch, with isolated amounts topping 2 inches) fell on some of the higher elevations of Colorado and Wyoming.
On the other side of the Region, heavy rains, amounting to several inches in some places, doused southeastern Kansas. Elsewhere, amounts exceeded 0.5 inch in several scattered areas, mostly in the High Plains and central Kansas, but most other locales recorded a few tenths at best.
Dryness and drought conditions improved by one category across a broad section of southeastern Kansas, with more localized improvements noted in some of the wetter areas of the higher elevations. Conditions were mostly unchanged across the rest of the High Plains, but a few localized areas worsened enough to increase one category on the map. Extreme drought (D3) continued to affect much of southeastern Colorado and portions of adjacent southwestern South Dakota and western Nebraska. Less than half of normal rainfall was reported over the past 90 days in some areas of west-central and north-central South Dakota, northeastern and southeastern Nebraska, and central and southern Kansas.
The South
A few small patches of dryness cropped up in Tennessee and the Lower Mississippi Valley, but widespread, entrenched drought is limited to areas from east-central Texas and central Oklahoma westward, despite heavy precipitation in a narrow band from the Middle Red River Valley into west-central Texas.
Significant eastward expansion of dryness and drought was prominent across east-central Texas, with smaller areas of deterioration noted elsewhere. For the past 90 days, precipitation totals have been 4 to 7 inches below normal across a broad area from south-central to east-central Texas, specifically from Walker, Grimes, and Brazos Counties southwestward through Lavaca County and some adjacent areas. — UNL Drought Monitor
