Agricultural News
Latest Drought Map Shows Some Slight Improvement But Long Term Outlook is Not Encouraging
Thu, 15 Apr 2021 14:49:06 CDT
Thunderstorms rolled across the central U.S. in waves during this past week, bringing drought condition improvements to parts of the Midwest and eastern Plains.
Meanwhile, warm, dry conditions persisted in the West. Parts of the Southwest are now experiencing record levels of dryness for the last 12 months.
The High Plains generally saw cooler than normal temperatures and widespread precipitation over the last week. Locally heavy amounts of rainfall helped erase long moisture deficits in eastern South Dakota and southeastern North Dakota.
Having missed out on the rainfall, conditions continued to deteriorate in south-central Oklahoma and in north, south and west Texas, where another week of warm, dry weather continued to build long-teerm deficits and further dried out soils.
To view the U.S. Drought map, click here.
In Oklahoma, the updated drought map shows 53 percent of the state is experiencing some type of dryness, which is close to last week's number of 49.80, and considerable drier than the 31.92 percent from three months ago.
Interestingly, one year ago, only 4.53 percent of the state was in drought.
There is still that lingering sliver of D3 in northwest Cimarron County in the Oklahoma Panhandle that has persisted for months.
To view the Oklahoma drought map, click here.
Looking ahead, well below normal temperatures are expected with normal precipitation.
A big concern is the forecast dryness for the Oklahoma Panhandle and most of Kansas.
To view the 6-10-day temperature outlook, click here.
To view the 6-10-day precipitation outlook, click here.
The 3-month temperature outlook map for April-June, shows above normal temperatures. To view this outlook map, click here.
A dry spring is forecast by NOAA in their 3-month (April-June) precipitation outlook. To view this outlook, click here.
Unfortunately, drought conditions will persist into summer for much of the western and southwestern U.S. and is expected to expand. The updated seasonal drought outlook map shows almost half the country will be in drought conditions during the next three months.
To view the latest seasonal drought outlook map, 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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