Nationwide
Strong thunderstorms and heavy precipitation again affected parts of the central and eastern Contiguous United States, although coverage was spotty in all but a few areas.
Heavy to excessive rains (at least 2 inches) doused portions of the Plains, Mississippi Valley, Upper Southeast, and scattered to isolated sections of the northern and western Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, Carolinas, Northeast, and northern Rockies. In several sizeable areas of the Plains where there was relatively solid coverage of heavy precipitation, conditions improved significantly.
Meanwhile, rainfall was negligible (several tenths of an inch at best) in most areas from the Rockies westward and in a few areas farther to the east, including much of southern and western Texas, the Oklahoma Panhandle, southeastern Kansas, central and western Nebraska, central and western North Dakota, a band from parts of the middle Mississippi Valley through the southern and eastern Great Lakes region, much of the immediate Gulf Coast, central North Carolina, central and eastern Virginia, and most of Florida and adjacent southeastern Alabama and southern Georgia. This led to another week with significant dryness and drought expansion and deterioration in the latter areas of the Southeast.
The West
A band of moderate to heavy precipitation (1 to 3 inches) fell across southeastern and south-central Montana, plus isolated spots in eastern Idaho.
The rest of the West Region was dry this past week, outside a narrow corridor of heavy rain in east-central New Mexico. As a result, dryness and drought eased their grip in these areas. In addition, some limited improvement was observed in northern and western Washington, as well as in small parts of northern Montana, following a reassessment of conditions. Most observed changes, however, were for the worse.
Conditions were broadly downgraded across interior northern Montana, and increasing moisture deficits led to the expansion of D0 (abnormal dryness) into southwestern Washington and much of northwestern Oregon. In addition, surface moisture depletion has become increasingly apparent across several areas in New Mexico, resulting in a significant increase in D3 (extreme drought) coverage. The dryness was more climatologically seasonable across Arizona, Nevada, and California, where conditions were unchanged this week.
The High Plains
Precipitation totals varied significantly across this region this week, but more areas were hit by heavy rains and improving conditions than dryness and deterioration.
The dry week led to deterioration across southwestern Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and much of central Colorado. Further north and east, however, widespread heavy rains were observed in several regions of the Plains and Wyoming, resulting in reductions in the intensity and extent of dryness and drought. Improvements were most widespread across central and northwestern Kansas, as well as most of South Dakota, where heavy rains were most prevalent. Still, despite the improvement in many areas, 60-day precipitation totals were under 25 percent of normal in southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado, with less than half of normal reported in adjacent areas, plus parts of central Kansas, central and northeastern Nebraska, and a few other scattered areas.
The South
The heaviest rain in the Contiguous United States fell on a band from central Oklahoma southwestward across the Red River (south) into part of northwestern Texas. An area covering several counties recorded 4 to 8 inches of rain locally.
Lesser but still heavy amounts (over 2 inches) fell on many areas across the rest of northern, central, and eastern Texas, portions of Louisiana and Mississippi, part of southern Tennessee, and a few scattered locations across Arkansas. Rainfall during the current and past few weeks has led to significant improvements across the central, northern, and eastern portions of Texas, as well as north-central Oklahoma and the western portions of the state outside the Panhandle. Dryness and drought remains widespread across most of Texas outside the northeast and over western portions of Oklahoma, with some deterioration to D2 (severe drought) noted in the Oklahoma Panhandle, which missed the week’s heavy rains.
A broad area of exceptional drought (D4) remained entrenched across a large swath in central and western Texas, though there was some erosion of its eastward extent. East of this area of solid drought coverage, most areas are free from dryness and drought, and locally heavy rains have reduced the coverage even further in parts of southeastern Mississippi. Small, isolated areas of abnormal dryness (D0) elsewhere were limited to northwestern Mississippi and eastern Tennessee. Arkansas is entirely free of any dryness or drought. — UNL Drought Monitor
