Visit the NDMC Photo Gallery to see photos of drought conditions in California, Georgia, South Carolina, and other states. If you have photos showing drought conditions, please consider submitting them to the Photo Gallery.

The data cutoff for Drought Monitor maps is Tuesday at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The maps, which are based on analysis of the data, are released each Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

NOTE: To view regional drought conditions, click on map below. State maps can be accessed from regional maps.

To compare current drought conditions with last week’s map, click here.

National Drought Summary -- May 5, 2009

The discussion in the Looking Ahead section is simply a description of what the official national guidance from the National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction is depicting for current areas of dryness and drought. The NWS forecast products utilized include the HPC 5-day QPF and 5-day Mean Temperature progs, the 6-10 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, and the 8-14 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, valid as of late Wednesday afternoon of the USDM release week. The NWS forecast web page used for this section is: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/forecasts/.

Widespread precipitation over many regions of the nation this week has led to large-scale improvements in drought conditions.  These short-term improvements are reflected in the West, Plains and mid-Atlantic regions.  Substantial, near-record rainfall in Oklahoma and northern Texas contributed to 3-category improvements in this region.

The Plains: The area of most significant precipitation of the week was along the Red River of Oklahoma and Texas.  The Burneyville, OK mesonet site reported an incredible 24-hour total of 12.89 inches, the fourth highest in the state’s history, bringing the week’s total to over 15 inches.  This, in combination with equally impressive storm totals in the area, generated a two- to three-category improvement throughout much of the region, similar to what might result from a tropical storm.  Widespread and significant changes spilled over the border into Texas, along a line roughly from Wichita Falls to College Station and eastward.  An expansion of extreme drought (D3) was made in the northern counties of Shackelford and Stevens, creating a steep gradient from wet to dry in this region.

In North Dakota, soil moisture has improved in the northwestern part of the state, but has worsened in the southwest.  D0 was introduced in these drier counties, and removed from the wetter northwestern areas.  Nebraska and Kansas have had a good dose of rainfall across their border that returned this area to near-normal conditions.  Areas of abnormal dryness remain in central Kansas and east central Nebraska.

The South: Florida continues to experience extreme drought throughout the southern reaches of the state.  D3 was expanded this week to include western Glades county, and eastward into the metropolitan areas in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.  This expansion reflects the large precipitation deficits in these areas, including shortages of over 11 inches in Miami and over 15 inches in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.  High fire danger is pervasive, and soil moisture ranges from one to five percent of normal in these interior areas.  In Mississippi, substantial rainfall this week of two to eight inches brought relief to the western part of the state, ameliorating the previously abnormally dry conditions.

The East: Beneficial rains swept through the Ohio River Valley and mid-Atlantic states this week.  This recovery in drought conditions meant improvements in a significant portion of the previously abnormally dry areas in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and southern New Jersey.  Local rainfall totals of over 4 inches were observed in the heart of this area in eastern Maryland and northern West Virginia.  In the Appalachian mountains, the area of D0 and D1 were reduced along the Tennessee/North Carolina border as well.

The West: The Sierra Nevada mountains of northern California were the recipients of significant rainfall the first few days in May.  Some weekly totals were over 7.5 inches in select areas for the week in the western foothills.  Forage and rangeland reports are near normal for this time of year, and California Department of Water Resources’ northern Sierra precipitation index is near normal for the water year (since October 1).  A small area of short-term improvement in drought conditions west of Lake Tahoe led to a one-category change in central El Dorado, Placer and Nevada counties.  A very tight gradient of precipitation over the crest to the lee of the Sierra Nevada contributed to the retention of D2 in northeastern California and northwestern Nevada. 

Elsewhere, a review of water conditions in Utah revealed near to above normal precipitation for the water year to date in many counties that had been in the abnormally dry category.  In addition, streamflow is near normal and reservoir storage is rising as a result.  Improvements were made to reflect no drought conditions in several western, northern, and northeastern counties in Utah and into eastern Nevada.  In Arizona, abnormally dry conditions persist and the east central part of the state was degraded to moderate drought, reflecting deficits in precipitation the last few months.

After a weather system pushed through Montana on April 27-29, improvements were warranted on this week’s map.  A large area of abnormally dry conditions was removed from central and eastern Montana.  Moderate drought remains in northwestern Montana.

Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico: No changes were introduced this week in these regions.

Looking Ahead: The next week’s Drought Monitor period is starting off wet in the Tennessee River Valley, with a stationary front stretching from east Texas to Virginia.  This system will bring precipitation to areas that have been recovering from drought in the Carolinas and Virginia, in addition to those areas already drought-free in Arkansas and Tennessee.  Rain and high elevation snow will come to the Pacific Northwest during this same period.  The system in the East will eventually work its way off the coast as high pressure from the central United States moves in.  Oklahoma could be on track again to receive more rainfall during the next week. 

Author: Laura Edwards, Western Regional Climate Center

D0 ... Abnormally Dry ... used for areas showing dryness but not yet in drought, or for areas recovering from drought.

Drought Intensity Categories
D1 ... Moderate Drought
D2 ... Severe Drought
D3 ... Extreme Drought
D4 ... Exceptional Drought

Drought or Dryness Types
A ... Agricultural
H ... Hydrological

Updated May 6, 2009