3/14 Drought Monitor - Slightly Decreased Drought Intensity, Larger Area

[hatrack]

EDIT

The Plains and Midwest: Beneficial rains of 1 inch or more fell on a broad swath from southeastern Oklahoma northeastward through the southern Great Lakes region, including most of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. Parts of this region recorded much larger amounts, with 4 to 6 inches reported in southeastern Missouri and 2 to 4 inches observed at many locations in east-central Oklahoma, northern Arkansas, south-central Missouri, central Illinois, and a swath from eastern Iowa eastward through southwestern Michigan. As a result, areas from east-central Oklahoma northeastward through central Illinois generally improved by 1 category, including former D4AH conditions in east-central Oklahoma. It should be noted, however, that 6-month precipitation totals are still 8 to 12 inches below normal in many of these areas, with deficits of 12 to 16 inches observed in parts of eastern Oklahoma and adjacent portions of Arkansas and Texas.

Farther north, the wet weather helped bring at least a temporary end to short-term precipitation deficits and surface moisture shortages across southern and east-central Iowa, central and northern Illinois, and the adjacent Great Lakes region, with precipitation totals now near to above normal on time scales going back as far as 90 days. However, continuing long-term precipitation deficits, low groundwater levels, and deep soil moisture shortages led to only spotty 1 category improvements and a broad reclassification of conditions as D0H to D2H, dropping the ‘A’ impact designation. Precipitation totals for the last 12 months remain 8 to 16 inches below normal at many locations in this region, and groundwater levels in east-central Iowa, though at their highest level since July 2005, remain almost 2 feet below the average of all prior measurements since 1941, according to the U. S. Geological Survey.

To the west, moderate to heavy snow fell on some of the D1H areas in western South Dakota and adjacent Wyoming, especially in and near the Black Hills, but precipitation totals were not large enough to warrant any drought classification changes.

Across the central and western Great Plains, the High Plains, and southern Texas, precipitation totals last week were once again unfavorably low. Totals of a few tenths of an inch were common, with little or no precipitation falling on areas from central Kansas and eastern Colorado southward through the southwestern Great Plains, the southern High Plains, and the southwestern two-thirds of Texas, including the Panhandle. Portions of the Texas Panhandle and interior southern Texas have recorded less than 25 percent of normal precipitation during the last 6 months, and 90-day totals are below 5 percent of normal in an area extending from central Kansas southwestward into central New Mexico.

These conditions prompted expansion of D4AH in southern Texas while D3AH conditions pushed northward along the southeast Texas coast, edged slightly westward in central Texas, and expanded into the western Red River Valley and most of the Texas Panhandle. In addition, D2AH stretched into west-central Texas, central New Mexico, and southeastern Colorado while D1AH enveloped central and west-central Kansas and adjacent Colorado.

The southern Plains’ drought, in conjunction with above-normal temperatures, low humidity, and gusty winds, led to an outbreak of wildfires. According to the Texas Forest Service, over 1.1 million acres have been burned in that state alone, taking a few lives and prompting local disaster declarations for 50 counties.

EDIT

http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

[zbdent]

1. Hey, didn't we evil libruls send Texas a bunch of rain after Katrina?

What'd they do with all that water?

:sarcasm::evilgrin:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. the Mayan shamen have said

there will be a problem with water this year. I think the problem could be a lack of water.