Current U.S. Drought Monitor
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The data cutoff for Drought Monitor maps is Tuesday at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The maps, which are based on analysis of the data, are released each Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. NOTE: To view regional drought conditions, click on map below. State maps can be accessed from regional maps. |
UPDATE: The links have been moved into the menu bars below.
NDMC's Drought Impact Reporter |
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For local details and impacts, please contact your State Climatologist or Regional Climate Center.
| The discussion in the Looking Ahead section is simply a description of what the official national guidance from the National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction is depicting for current areas of dryness and drought. The NWS forecast products utilized include the HPC 5-day QPF and 5-day Mean Temperature progs, the 6-10 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, and the 8-14 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, valid as of late Wednesday afternoon of the USDM release week. The NWS forecast web page used for this section is: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/forecasts/. Weekly Weather Summary: For much of the nation, 2011 ended on a mild, dry note. An exception was the Northwest, where heavy precipitation and high winds occurred during the closing days of 2011. The early days of the New Year featured additional mild, dry weather in many areas, although sharply colder air invaded the Great Lakes and Eastern States. The Southeast: Dry weather returned at the end of 2011, followed by a wintry blast early in the New Year. Significant precipitation continued to bypass the central Gulf Coast region, where some extreme drought (D3) was introduced, and the southern Atlantic region, where abnormal dryness (D0) and moderate drought (D1) was expanded slightly. Peninsular Florida’s first significant freeze of the season struck on the night of January 3-4, aggravating the effects of short-term dryness for some types of vegetation. Moderate drought crept northward in eastern North Carolina, while short-term dryness developed as far north as the Delmarva Peninsula. Southern and Central Plains: Mild, dry weather on the Plains melted any remaining snow cover. In fact, a winter “heat wave” arrived on New Year’s Eve across the central and southern Plains, where record highs for December 31 included 83°F in Childress, Texas, and 66°F in Topeka, Kansas. Following a relatively wet finish to 2011, the return of warm, dry weather to the nation’s southern tier could be suggestive of an increasingly La Niña-driven atmospheric regime. If true, a return to dryness would not be favorable for the south-central U.S., where long-term drought retains a grip. For example, 80% of the rangeland and pastures in Texas remain in very poor to poor condition, according to an early-January report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Northern Plains and Midwest: Unseasonably mild weather continued into the New Year. Enough precipitation fell in some areas to stave off further expansion of drought, but more abnormal dryness (D0) was introduced in western North Dakota. High temperatures remained at record-setting levels in the north-central U.S., with Bismarck, North Dakota (55°F on January 3), among a large number of stations reporting daily-record highs in early 2012. The Southwest: The drought depiction remained virtually unchanged in the Southwest, as the return of dry weather followed a period of beneficial rain and snow. California, the Intermountain West, and the Northwest: Precipitation totals topped 8 inches in some locations from the Oregon coast to the Cascades. Moisture spread as far inland as the northern Rockies, where 2- to 4-inch totals were common. The heavy precipitation prevented further expansion of abnormal dryness (D0) into the Northwest. In contrast, California’s key watershed and agricultural areas received little or no precipitation. Reservoir storage was not yet a concern in California, but the state’s rangeland and pastures continued to suffer from the combination of December freezes and a lack of moisture. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California’s “rangeland conditions had started to deteriorate due to lack of rains; wetter weather was needed to sustain current conditions.” Furthermore, “supplemental feeding of livestock continued [in California]. Abnormal dryness (D0) and moderate drought (D1) were broadly expanded in northern and central California and much of Nevada. Numerous locations, including Salinas and Fresno, California, and Reno and Elko, Nevada, set December records for dryness. Not a single drop of precipitation fell in Eureka, Nevada, and Fresno during December for the first time since 1989. Reno experienced its first completely dry December since 1883. Salt Lake City, Utah, received monthly precipitation totaling just 0.03 inch, breaking a December record established in 1976. Farther east, short-term dryness (D0) was introduced in part of northern Colorado, west of the Continental Divide. Hawaii: Quiet weather returned by the end of 2011, following a relatively wet December. As a result, no changes were introduced. On the Big Island, Hilo’s December rainfall totaled 20.26 inches (175% of normal). Looking Ahead: During the next 5 days (January 5-9), warmth expanding eastward from the western and central U.S. will gradually displace cold air in the East. Some light precipitation will fall across the Southeast and from the Great Lakes region into northern New England. Elsewhere, significant precipitation will be limited to the Pacific Northwest and the northern Rockies. Some light precipitation may occur toward the end of the period in the Great Basin and the Southwest. The CPC 6- to 10-day outlook for January 10-14 calls for near- to above-normal temperatures across the contiguous U.S., except for cooler-than-normal conditions in the southern Atlantic region. Meanwhile, below-normal precipitation from California to the central and southern Plains will contrast with wetter-than-normal weather in parts of the Southeast and across the nation’s northern tier. |
| Dryness Categories |
| D0 ... Abnormally Dry ... used for areas showing dryness but not yet in drought, or for areas recovering from drought.
Updated January 4, 2012 |
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