National Climatic Data Center, 15 April 2004

U.S. Drought Highlights:

• On the national scale, severe to extreme drought affected about 19 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of March 2004
  • moderate to extreme drought affected about 27 percent of the contiguous U.S.
• March was much warmer and drier than normal across most of the western and Great Plains drought areas, resulting in an expansion of the national percentage drought area
• The month was dry along much of the East Coast and very dry in the Southeast
• Long-term moisture deficits (last 9 to 24 to 60 months) persisted across parts of the Upper Midwest to central Plains, parts of the Southeast, and most of the West

Contents Of This Report:

• National Overview
• Regional Drought Watch
• Palmer Drought Indices*
• Standardized Precipitation Index*
• Regional Precipitation Ranks*
• Weekly Drought Monitoring Tools*
• State/Regional Moisture Status*

  * From these pages, click on the
  Back button to return to this page.

Climate Services Division
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4876
phone: 828-271-4800
email: ncdc.info@noaa.gov

Richard Heim
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: Richard.Heim@noaa.gov

Jay Lawrimore
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: Jay.Lawrimore@noaa.gov