Weekly Drought Update: Drought Stagnates; Relief's in Sight

Drought continues to stain southern and western states, but slight improvements were made due to sporadic fronts that brought relief across the U.S.

Moderate rains in the Great Basin as of late helped keep things nice and moist, thus removing droughts in northern Nevada and southern Idaho. On the other hand, lackluster rain totals were seen in the Pacific Northwest, more specifically Washington into northern California, where average rain totals are below normal. In fact, moderate droughts appeared across the Washington and Oregon Cascades, northwestern Oregon into northern and southwestern Idaho, while abnormal droughts spread across the northern Great Basin. 

Dry conditions advanced into the High Plains where little to no rain fell this past week. However, there was light snow showers across the Dakotas, Wyoming and the central Plains. It’s not unusual for the Midwest and Upper Midwest to be blasted by Arctic dry air this time of year, but this does prevent drought from expanding due to frozen soils. Thus, little to no changes were made this week, other than the slight removal of abnormal droughts along the Front Range.

The South is also seeing a fair share of dryness, but a squall line of robust storms earlier in the week helped improve conditions from Louisiana to the Carolinas. Thus, severe droughts were removed from Georgia, but due to the front losing steam towards the end, moderate droughts expanded in Florida. Furthermore, this unsettled weather was too far east to greatly affect the Arkansas and Texas droughts, leading to the expansion of abnormal and moderate droughts here. 

Otherwise, the Northeast, Great Lakes, Northern Tier and Ohio Valley, including the Mississippi Valley saw little to no drought impacts this past week due to widespread snow and rainfall.

Looking ahead, an Atmospheric River is currently funneling moisture into the Pacific Northwest and will do so for the next few days. This will probably help alleviate droughts in Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. More rain will set up shop in the Southeast that may drop enough to eradicate drought all together in Florida. However, post-Christmas looks to be quiet, dry and cold, especially for soils along the East Coast.