Precipitation was hit-or-miss across the nation last week, with some areas seeing heavy rain and others reporting little to no precipitation. Consequently, there was a mix of improvements and degradations to the drought depiction.

South
A nearly stationary front remained settled over parts of the South into the High Plains and Midwest this week. Locally heavy rain fell along this cold front, which included central Texas through eastern Oklahoma. The largest amounts were anywhere from 4 to 8 inches in the Middle Red River Valley into northeast Texas. More widely scattered amounts of 2 to 4 inches impacted southeastern Texas and northern Louisiana. Unfortunately, mainly dry weather prevailed elsewhere, including Arkansas, Tennessee, southern Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Abnormal dryness (D0) was added to southeastern Mississippi, far southwestern Louisiana, and the southeast Texas coast. A small area of abnormal dryness (D0) was also introduced to eastern Tennessee.

Northwestern Arkansas saw the removal of abnormal dryness (D0) and is now free of abnormally dry and drought conditions. Severe drought (D2) was trimmed significantly in northern Oklahoma, with only a small area remaining. Abnormal dryness and moderate drought (D0-D1) also decreased in coverage across central and eastern Oklahoma. North-central and central Texas saw abnormal dryness to extreme drought (D0-D3) decrease in coverage, while abnormal dryness to extreme drought (D0-D3) expanded from southern Texas northeastward. Far western Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle were generally unchanged, with a large area of exceptional drought (D4) remaining from the Texas Hill Country westwards across the Trans-Pecos.

High Plains
Parts of the High Plains were also impacted by a stationary front for most of the week. Heavy rain fell in parts of southeastern Kansas, with amounts of 4 to 8 inches. Around 2 to 4 inches affected much of southeastern Nebraska. Moderate to locally heavy precipitation occurred in a few other places, including some of the higher elevations of Colorado and Wyoming, along with central Kansas. Otherwise, drier weather was observed elsewhere.

Moderate drought (D1) expanded slightly in northwestern Wyoming. Abnormal dryness to severe drought (D0-D2) increased in coverage across southeastern Colorado, while abnormal dryness and moderate drought (D0-D1) also worsened in western Kansas. Severe drought (D2) also grew in coverage for central Nebraska.

Meanwhile, abnormal dryness and moderate drought (D0-D1) shrunk across far southeastern Nebraska and most of eastern Kansas. An area of abnormal dryness was also removed in southwestern Wyoming.

West
Moderate to locally heavy rain fell on south-central Montana, with only isolated to scattered moderate amounts elsewhere across the state. While the rest of the West saw some light precipitation last week, most places reported little to no precipitation.

Despite the moisture, the northern and eastern sections of Montana saw some expansion to abnormal dryness and moderate drought (D0-D1). Though the more severely affected areas of severe and extreme drought (D2-D3) remain unchanged. Across southern parts of the West, expansion of the broad-scale severe to extreme drought (D2-D3) occurred in parts of New Mexico, southern Utah, and adjacent Arizona. Extreme and exceptional drought (D3-D4) covers a broad area from southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah through much of Arizona and southern and western New Mexico.

Midwest
It was an active and somewhat soggy week throughout the Midwest last week. This was mostly due to the same front that stalled over parts of the South and High Plains. The exception was Kentucky, which stayed generally dry. However, intense rains from the past few weeks kept any dryness at bay there. Northern Minnesota also missed out on the most beneficial rainfall.

Abnormal dryness (D0) was removed from southwestern Missouri. Moderate drought (D1) was removed from northeastern Missouri, while abnormal dryness (D0) shrank in coverage. Abnormal dryness and moderate drought (D0-D1) decreased in coverage across Iowa, while abnormal dryness (D0) was removed from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Conversely, abnormal dryness was added to northwestern Missouri, while abnormal dryness and moderate drought (D0-D1) expanded across northern Minnesota.

Southeast
While there was some scattered rain in the northern half of Alabama, most of the Southeast region received little, if any, precipitation last week. As a result, widespread degradation occurred in the drought depiction this week.

Abnormal dryness (D0) was added to southwestern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle into northern Florida. Large portions of central and southern Florida are now impacted by moderate (D1) to severe (D2) drought, with a few areas of extreme (D3) drought. Abnormal dryness (D0) also expanded across southern and eastern Georgia. Moderate drought (D1) increased in coverage across the Carolinas, with two small areas of severe drought (D2) added near the coastline. Moderate drought (D1) was also expanded in northern and south-central Virginia.

Northeast
It was an active week for the interior Northeast as several tenths to more than an inch of precipitation fell. Generally, lighter, if any, precipitation occurred elsewhere, though. Given recent rains over the past few weeks, drought status was unchanged from last week for most of the region.

There was a slight improvement to moderate drought (D1) in southern New Hampshire. Meanwhile, moderate drought (D1) was introduced to a small part of east-central West Virginia. Despite remaining unchanged, near-record low streamflows for this time of the year are widespread across an area from central Maryland into southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

Looking Ahead (April 22 through April 28)
A cold front stalled from the south-central U.S. into the Southeast to start the forecast period alongside a developing storm system that impacted the rest of the nation’s midsection. This storm system will trek eastward into the weekend, finally impacting the Northeast by Sunday. A fairly strong upper-level weather system will push into the West during the weekend and will then slide into the central U.S. towards the end of the forecast period.

This will translate into daily or almost daily chances of rain along and east of the Rockies. However, wet snow or a rain/snow mix could fall in the higher elevations of the Rockies and the Northeast. The West will stay generally quiet to start the forecast period, but will then become more active with rain and mountain snow for the middle and end of the period.

Scattered to numerous improvements are likely nationwide given this more active spring pattern. The exception will be the drought-stricken areas of the Desert Southwest into the southern High Plains, as well as most of Florida. Unfortunately, there will likely continue to be deterioration in the drought depiction here.

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Source: U.S. Drought Monitor

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