Your Weekly U.S. Drought Monitor Update

Not much change in the drought conditions across a majority of the U.S. The West, especially much of California and portions of Nevada, remain in exceptional drought conditions. Drought conditions are getting worse in the southern Plains as portions of eastern New Mexico, western Oklahoma, and northern Texas are starting to go from extreme to exceptional conditions. Because of such dry conditions and high winds, dust storm have been occurring in these areas this week. On Tuesday, there was a significant dust storm outside of Amarillo, Texas. The very dry weather continues to hold on to many areas west of the Mississippi River, while most locations east of the Mississippi, remain fairly unaffected by drought conditions.

For much of Alabama, the month of March is typically one of, if not the wettest month of the year. Though we’ve had several rain events this month, and another one expected this weekend, we are seeing some rainfall deficits for many areas of the state for this month. Last week’s update had a bit of an improvement for the state, but looking at this week’s update, conditions have gone the opposite direction. No part of Alabama is currently experiencing drought conditions, but we are seeing the Abnormally Dry conditions begin to expand.

For the abnormally dry conditions in northwestern portions of the state, there is no change from last week as the same areas of Limestone, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Colbert, Franklin, and Marion counties are still highlighted in this condition.

The new area from last week of abnormally dry conditions over of East Alabama, that included portions of Talladega, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Randolph, Cleburne, and Clay counties, has expanded. It stretches back to the southwest and now includes portions of Chilton, Dallas, Autauga, and Elmore counties. It also expanded eastward to include all of Randolph and much of Chambers County.

We have seen the abnormally dry conditions expand across the Wiregrass Region as well. Locations in Pike, Crenshaw, Coffee, Geneva, Covington, Escambia, Conecuh and into central Baldwin County are now highlighted.

Overall, for the entire state the abnormally dry conditions have increased in the area they cover. Last week it was at 8.64% of the state, this week it is 18.48%, which is an increase of 9.84%. With additional rainfall over the upcoming weekend, hopefully we will see this trend reverse itself.

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Category: Alabama's Weather