Nationwide
Storm systems brought significant precipitation and drought relief to broad areas in the central Rockies, central and southern Plains, Lower and Middle Mississippi Valley, Lower and Middle Ohio Valley, and the South Atlantic Region.
Meanwhile, subnormal precipitation and some unseasonable warmth led to deterioration in dryness and drought conditions in portions of the Southwest, southern and western Texas, the interior Southeast, the northeastern Gulf Coast, the central and southern Appalachians, the mid-Atlantic region, the Northeast. Excessive precipitation totals fell in some areas. From central South Carolina through much of southeastern Georgia, 4 inches to locally a foot of rain were reported.
Similar totals fell on central Louisiana, a band through central and north-central Texas, small parts of the Lower Ohio Valley, and orographically-favored areas in the Northwest. In addition, a broad area covering the eastern half of Colorado and adjacent areas in New Mexico and the central High Plains recorded 2-4 inches of precipitation, much of which fell as snow in the middle and higher elevations. A few scattered sites reported 3-4.5 feet of snow, mainly in the higher elevations of Colorado.
The West
Heavy precipitation In northeastern New Mexico, with snow reported in some of the higher elevations, produced areas of improvement to dryness and drought. A few high spots in New Mexico reported nearly 3 feet of snow, including locations near Las Vegas, NM and Folsom, NM. The only other area of improvement in the West Region was in eastern Washington.
The High Plains
A potent low triggered widespread heavy precipitation over the southern half of the Region, except along the eastern fringe, while amounts were limited to several tenths of an inch at most farther north.
Between 2-4 inches of precipitation fell on a large swath covering the eastern half of Colorado, most of central and western Kansas, and adjacent Nebraska. In nearby areas, amounts ranging from a few tenths of an inch to a couple of inches were observed over the western half of Colorado. Amounts of 0.5 inch to approaching 2 inches in spots were observed across southeastern Wyoming, most other areas in Nebraska, and eastern Kansas. Moderate amounts fell on a swath across the central and southwestern Dakotas. The remainder of this region reported little precipitation, as did most of Wyoming.
In some of the higher elevations of Colorado, this precipitation fell as heavy snow, with a few locations reporting snow piling up 3-4.5 feet deep (50-54 inches buried in Fort Garland, CO, while 44 to 47 inches were reported near La Veta, Elbert, and Trinidad CO). All of this resulted in a large area of improvement depicted over southern and western Kansas, most of northern and eastern Colorado, part of southwestern Nebraska, and a few spots in eastern Wyoming. There were a few areas of 2-class improvement in southeastern Colorado, northwestern Kansas, and south-central and southeastern Kansas fringes.
Elsewhere, the dry week didn’t engender much deterioration due to relatively cool weather, with most of these locations remaining unchanged from last week. One exception was in a small patch of northeastern Nebraska and adjacent South Dakota, where a new patch of extreme drought (D3) was identified.
The Midwest
Heavy rain pounded the Lower Ohio Valley as a broad area across western Kentucky and adjacent Indiana received at least 3 inches of rain, with a portion of interior western Kentucky reporting 4 to nearly 8 inches of rain.
Totals of over an inch stretched farther east through most of central and western Ohio and also affected parts of the central and northern Great Lakes, central to western Illinois, and parts of southern and eastern Missouri. Most other areas recorded several tenths of an inch of precipitation. Still, little or none fell across the northwestern 2/3 of Minnesota, most of central Iowa, and near the Mississippi River from northern Missouri into southern Wisconsin. This moisture resulted in a fairly large area of improvement stretching across most of the greater Ohio Valley, from Lake Michigan through the dry parts of central and southern Missouri and portions of southeastern Minnesota. In the areas receiving limited rainfall, dryness and drought have not been as quick to worsen as in some other parts of the country, likely due to relatively cooler temperatures, but some deterioration was introduced across the central Lower Peninsula of Michigan and over part of southeastern Wisconsin and adjacent Illinois.
The South
Like the Southeastern Region, the South Region experienced highly variable rainfall this past week. Heavy precipitation – in some areas for the second consecutive week – soaked a swath from Louisiana and eastern Texas northward through much of the Lower and Middle Mississippi Valley and the Tennessee Valley.
A broad swath reaching as far west as central Arkansas recorded at least 1.5 inches in most places, with some areas recording much higher amounts (3 to 8 inches in part of western Tennessee and over a foot in parts of central Louisiana). This resulted in reductions in dryness and drought severity across affected areas of the Lower Mississippi Valley and eastern Texas, with some 2-class improvements imposed in a small part of southwestern Louisiana and an area straddling southwesternmost Mississippi and adjacent southeastern Louisiana. To the north, the heavy rains also removed abnormal dryness from across western Tennessee.
Farther west, another area of heavy precipitation accompanied a frontal passage in a swath from central Texas into the central Red River (south) Valley, where totals reached 4-8 inches along the axis of heaviest amounts. To the north, heavy precipitation associated with a pair of potent upper-level low-pressure systems dropped over 2 inches on a large part of central and western Oklahoma and much of the Texas Panhandle, with localized totals exceeding 4 inches in the eastern Texas Panhandle northward to the Oklahoma/Kansas border. There was also a patch of heavy rainfall across portions of eastern Oklahoma to the east, where isolated amounts peaked at around 3 inches. Dryness and drought affecting these areas were significantly eased, with a couple of patches of 2-class improvements in north-central and northeastern Oklahoma.
In stark contrast, little or no precipitation was observed from parts of southeastern Oklahoma southward through Deep South Texas and across western Texas as well. Dryness and drought worsened in some areas, with the most widespread deterioration noted in western Texas. The broad area of exceptional drought (D4, the most intense category) expanded to cover most or all of eastern Hudspeth, Culberson, western Reeves, Jeff Davis, Presidio, and Brewster Counties. Also, D3 (extreme drought) expanded to cover most of the remainder of the Big Bend of Texas. — UNL Drought Monitor
