Drought Update – January 27, 2024

Every week on Thursday, the Drought Monitor LINK is updated for every state in the U.S. plus most territories.

 

 

 

 

And there is another source of information on drought from certain groupings of states that operate what is called a Drought Early Warming System (DEWS). They sometimes have webinars and may issue reports without having a webinar. Not all parts of the U.S. are covered. These groups of states seem to issue reports every two months. I am only showing the recent reports since a month-old report at this time of the year can be misleading.

To get to that part of this article where I provide these reports you may have to click on “Read More”. I provide maps for all of the existing DEWS.  And other groups of states report on precipitation, streamflow, and reservoir status which overlaps a lot with what is covered by the DEWS. So I plan to write about the activity of both kinds of groups. Today I am focusing on the DEWS.

Drought Update August 11, 2022: Marginal Temporary Improvement

It is a good time to look at how the drought situation in the Continental U.S. has changed over the last couple of months. There is a big debate as to whether the increased precipitation in June and July really changed the situation or was simply a drop in the bucket and I am tending to agree with the “drop in the bucket” assessment.  Keep on reading to find out why I have drawn that conclusion.