Latest Drought Update: Minor Progress Made Toward Relief, Just Not the Northeast

Another active weak in weather aided in diminishing drought through much of the U.S., but one exception remains in the Northeastern U.S. 

Northeast 

Although 1-3 inches of rainfall continued to split extreme to exceptional drought (D3-D4) in West Virginia this week, virtually no precipitation aided elsewhere in the region. The Northeast Megalopolis is now almost wholly ensnared in at least severe drought (D2), with a D4 expansion into Delmarva and all South Jersey. Water restrictions are now entering the fray for many municipal governments. Only the interior Northeast has avoided even moderate drought (D1), with only a small region of healthy soils along the New York-Vermont border amidst widely abnormally dry (D0) environments. 

Southeast 

Burgeoning storms rinsed up to an inch and a half of rain over the Coastal Plains of Virginia and North Carolina, knocking back against previously expanded D1 along the Eastern Shore, although moderate drought largely persisted near the Outer Banks through Charleston's coast. Florida has continued to get bitten by expanding drought, with D1-D2 now covering much of the panhandle as well as areas just north and west of Jacksonville. A new abnormally dry area has emerged in South Florida amidst sub-normal precipitation throughout November. Limited improvement from D1 was seen in southwestern Virginia and portions of western Georgia under significant rainfall, and strongholds of healthy soils survived another week in south-central South Carolina, eastern Georgia, and central Florida. 

South 

The Deep South was certainly a toss-up of both improving and degrading conditions. Significant rainfall and subsequent relief were observed in Mississippi, Louisiana, northern Arkansas, and finally in Texas' northern tier. D2-D3 retreated to just Mississippi's northern and far southeastern tier while almost all D1 in Louisiana and D2 in Arkansas were removed. Texas and Oklahoma saw the most jarring, optimistic results despite above-average temperatures, with two-category improvements into healthy conditions across their panhandles, and the absence of half of the East Texas and its Red River's D1 were also great strides, as D3 rampaged in the basin at October's end.  

Unfortunately, extreme to exceptional drought persists in Texas' southwest, surrounding San Antonio, south-central Tennessee, and in west-central Alabama. The latter two regions saw significant expansion, while a new pocket of extreme drought appeared near Knoxville under a determined lack of showers. D1-D2 conditions still ravage most of Alabama, but some relief into D0 gave hope to Alabama's northwest. West Arkansas saw similarly conflicting drought, with moderate drought now contiguous through western Arkansas despite the erasure of severe drought in its northwest. 

Midwest 

Heavy rain through the lower Ohio Valley and westward saw continued to rally on full relief in the Midwest, with the only remaining D3-D4 stuck in southeastern Ohio. D0 was also erased for much of middle Wisconsin and far northwestern Missouri, while severe drought saw deep cuts in western Minnesota and Iowa. Although the region is trending toward health, D1-D2 still holds strong in the far Upper Midwest, most of Michigan, and in the swath from Ohio through Iowa. 

High Plains 

Outside of Kansas, which knocked off its remaining severe drought to the north, the region's improvement halted in the face of just a tenth of an inch of rainfall and largely elevated temperatures for mid-November. In summation, D1-D2 still dominates southern South Dakota through northern Kansas, with pockets of extreme lingering in northern Nebraska and southern South Dakota amidst an eastward swath of severe drought. Additionally, a vast poleward stretch of near-contiguous, long-term extreme drought holds fast from far north-central Colorado into Canada. Spots of healthy to just D0 soil continue to contend for eastern North Dakota, central Montana, and eastern New Mexico into Colorado. 

West 

Based on recent observations, the Last Frontier, Alaska, is now in perfect health, being the only state to manage such a feat this week. The rest of the West is largely stagnant despite decent rainfall from recent moisture surging into the Interior Northwest from subsequent frontal systems. The bulk of rainfall in the region was received in the Pacific Northwest, which saw the removal of moderate drought west of the Cascades and a blow-back of D0 into northern California. Unfortunately, D4-D5 persists in pockets of western Montana, western Wyoming, and southwestern Arizona with D1-D2 still dominating the interior Northwest and Southwest. Notably healthy soils in the West include western Colorado, southeastern Idaho, and southwestern California. 

Caribbean and Pacific 

No American island territory in either the Caribbean Sea or the Pacific Ocean has any drought this week, keeping healthy near under high moisture. As for Hawaii, although the windward slopes and the whole Big Island remain drought-free, the lee-slopes of the lesser islands still hold locally moderate, severe, and extreme drought pockets amidst insufficient rainfall. 

In the Future 

Overall, another week of relief is expected for the U.S. is on the agenda. Continued progress is expected to retreat long-standing drought and dryness in the Northwest and California after both the Pineapple Express and a bomb cyclone continue to send ripples of heavy rain and snow into the interior. Above-normal precipitation favored in the Southwest as well later this coming week, along with below-average temperatures lessening any deterioration in the West. Furthermore, the Northeast has also seen the entrance of a life-giving low-pressure system this week, both rinsing and icing the region and encouraging widespread one-category relief into the weekend. As for elsewhere, above-normal precipitation is on the radar for the South, at least east of the Mississippi Basin, but the lower Mid-Atlantic and the southern Plains are expecting to stagnate in drought. 
  

Source: U.S. Drought Monitor