Nationwide
A highly variable precipitation pattern was noted across the contiguous 48 states this past week, resulting in significant changes in the Drought Monitor depiction.
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Another week of heavy rain June 4-11 continued to ease drought and abnormal dryness in parts of the central and southern Plains, with excessive amounts resulting in 2-category improvements in portions of central Kansas. Moderate to heavy rainfall also brought improvements to portions of the middle and upper Mississippi Valley, the Northeast, the Washington Cascades, and southernmost Florida.
Meanwhile, deficient rainfall caused abnormal dryness and drought to expand or intensify in parts of southern New England, the mid-Atlantic region, the interior Southeast, the central and northern Florida Peninsula, a few scattered areas across Texas, part of the central Rockies, the northern High Plains, some sections of interior Washington and Oregon, and a small region in northeastern Alaska.
The West
Similar to western Texas, moderate to heavy precipitation also doused much of eastern New Mexico last week, inducing widespread 1-category improvement.
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The heaviest amounts (4.5 to locally 8 inches) fell on southern and west-central Guadalupe County, but most of the state’s eastern half reported at least 0.5 inches. Another area that experienced some drought relief was the higher elevations of the Cascades in Washington. During the past 30 days, 8 to 15 inches of precipitation has fallen on the peaks, with the largest totals observed in Snohomish County. Another 0.5-2 inches fell along and just east of the highest elevations last week. As a result, moderate drought was reduced to abnormal dryness there.
However, across the northern tier of the region to the south and east of the Washington Cascades, persistently below-normal precipitation in many areas led to the expansion of abnormal dryness (D0) and moderate drought (D1) in a few areas, in particular the north-central Oregon Cascades, part of interior southeastern Oregon, part of the central and eastern Washington plains, and a broad area of northern and central Montana from east of the Rockies to near North Dakota. Soil moisture and some streamflows have begun to reflect the past few weeks of subnormal rainfall across portions of central and eastern Montana.
The High Plains
Heavy to excessive rains hit parts of the southern High Plains Region, bringing widespread improvement to the entrenched dryness and drought affecting much of Kansas and eastern Colorado.
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The heaviest amounts soaked a swath across central Kansas, with more scattered heavy rains observed farther north in Kansas and across eastern Colorado. Between 5 and 8 inches fell on central Rice, eastern McPherson, central Marion, and much of Chase Counties in central Kansas, prompting some 2-category improvements. D3 conditions were eliminated from the High Plains Region, and severe drought (D2) is now limited to a few counties south and west of the band where the heaviest rains fell last week. Moderate rains (over 1.5 inches) reached into southern Nebraska as well, improving conditions in southeastern Nebraska.
Farther north and west, conditions were considerably drier, and most sites recorded several tenths of an inch of rain at best. This kept conditions essentially unchanged in most areas, although some D0 expansion was introduced in north-central Colorado, western Nebraska, adjacent South Dakota, and north-central South Dakota. A dry week also allowed conditions to deteriorate in part of southwestern Colorado, with moderate drought (D1) expanding northward into west-central Colorado. There was an additional, small area of improvement in part of Laramie County in southeastern Wyoming, where a mesoscale heavy rain event (2-4.5 inches) eased D0 to D1 conditions.
The South
Widespread dryness and drought continued to cover western Oklahoma, the western Texas Panhandle, and most other areas across southern and western Texas.
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Rainfall totals were generally unremarkable across western Oklahoma, keeping D0 to D2 conditions unchanged, save for a couple of small patches near the central part of the state. In contrast, rainfall was highly variable in the areas of Texas that have been affected by dryness and drought (D0 to D3) recently, leading to sizeable areas that felt both deterioration and improvement. Most of the dry areas in the Texas Panhandle received at least moderate rain last week (1.5 inches or more), with several patches soaked by 3-5 inches of rain.
As a result, improvement was introduced in many locations across this region. Farther south, moderate to locally heavy rains were observed in portions of the southern Edwards Plateau and southward through parts of Bandera, Medina, and Bexar Counties. Totals of 1-2 inches were fairly common in this region, although a few swaths received more, up to 4 inches at a few isolated locations. Improvement was also introduced in significant parts of this region, although less broadly than farther north since heavier totals were not as widespread. In sharp contrast, dry and hot weather across Deep South Texas and western parts of the Edwards Plateau led to broad-scale deterioration in these regions.
Agricultural interests in the western Edwards Plateau report slowed planting due to quickly depleting surface moisture, resulting in blowing sand and dirt with little or no soil moisture. Over the past 90 days, a broad area from the southern Big Bend southward along the Rio Grande Valley into Maverick County recorded only 10-50% of average rainfall, with similar amounts reported across portions of the western Edwards Plateau. T
The remainder of the South region is nearly free of notable dryness. Moderate drought is restricted to a couple of patches in northeastern Arkansas, with abnormal dryness covering the remainder of northeastern Arkansas and a large part of northern Mississippi. Moderate rains brought limited improvement to portions of northeastern Arkansas this past week. Still, only light rains fell across northern Mississippi, increasing short-term moisture deficits and prompting an increase in D0 coverage. Northwestern Mississippi has recorded near or just over one-half of average rainfall since mid-April. — UNL Drought Monitor
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