Agricultural News
U.S. Drought Monitor Map Show Vast Improvements in Oklahoma and Texas
Thu, 07 Jan 2021 14:28:54 CST
Widespread precipitation, well above normal, fell across much of the southern U.S. to start the new year, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map. The heavy moisture resulted in large swaths of drought improvement.
In Texas, this week's winter storm brought 1 to 4 inches of precipitation more than what is normally received in an entire month this time of year.
We saw one to two drought category improvements in all but the far western part of Texas, the Panhandle and southern Texas.
Moderate drought was removed from southeast Oklahoma and Arkansas.
We are definitely starting the year on a wet note for much of the country as 38.41 percent of the country is drought free, a fiver percent improvement from a week ago.
There is some work to be done as one year ago more than 75 percent of the country was drought-free.
Dark shades of Extreme (D3) and Exceptional (D4) drought cover large sections of the western and southwestern U.S.
The northwest and everything from the central U.S. on east is basically in good shape.
To view the U.S. Drought map, click here.
For Oklahoma, we saw a more than 10 percent decrease in drought coverage, going from 56.83 percent drought free last week to 67.30 percent this week.
Three months ago, the drought free coverage in Oklahoma was 54.86 percent.
We continue to see a small slice of D3 in northwest Cimarron County and in Hollis County.
We could see substantial improvement in these two areas if the current weather forecast holds together.
To view the Oklahoma drought map, click here.
The latest drought outlook calls for substantial improvement for much of Oklahoma.
To view the monthly drought outlook map for December from the Climate Prediction Center, click here.
The outlook for next week will be warm and dry for much of the state.
To view the 6-10-day temperature outlook, click here.
To view the 6-10-day precipitation outlook, click here.
The U.S. Drought Monitor Map is developed through a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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