The latest update from the U.S. Drought monitor was released today and it shows pockets of moderate to severe drought across pockets of the northwest and portions of the central states, with the worst drought conditions existing across central and western Texas, southeastern New Mexico, eastern Iowa, northern Idaho, and western Montana. Severe drought is also impacting Hawaii. Drought conditions are not monitored in Alaska.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is produced through a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In recent days, heavy precipitation fell across much of the central and eastern parts of the country, bringing improvements to dry conditions along the Mississippi River and Great Lakes regions. There were also isolated areas of improvement in Oregon, Idaho and Montana. However, extreme drought conditions were introduced in the mountainous region along the Idaho and Montana border due to concerns about low snow amounts and possible early snowmelt. Across the country in the Southeast, areas in North Carolina and southern Florida are seeing drying conditions due to low precipitation over the past few weeks. Western and southern Texas, which largely missed this week’s precipitation, saw an expansion of abnormal dryness, with moderate and severe drought conditions expanding there. Flash drought conditions are appearing in Oklahoma and Kansas, with some spillovers in eastern Colorado and western Missouri too. There, weeks with little precipitation, warming temperatures, dry soils and low streamflow levels are leading to rapid degradations.
The Big Island of Hawaii is also experiencing severe drought conditions. While the Aloha State had significant rain events late last week, April 11-14, with Kauai getting roughly a foot of rain around April 11, and an additional round of showers and storms bringing another 1-3″ of rain there and across the other islands, the leeward side of the Big Island hasn’t seen much of any rain. As a result, conditions around Waikoloa and Waimea are worsening there.
