Several regions in the Plains received beneficial rain

Last week, there were several areas that had significant rainfall amounts.

One area was over Iowa, eastern Nebraska and Kansas, and northwest Missouri, where more than 4 inches fell in central Iowa and southeastern Kansas.

Most of the southwestern United States received little rain, with exceptions of scattered monsoonal precipitation along the New Mexico-Arizona border. Most of Texas and Oklahoma continued to be dry, as was most of the western Great Plains.

Temperatures in the southern Great Plains and lower Mississippi Valley continued to be very warm, in some locations more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Most of the rest of the continental U.S. was also above normal.

The U.S. Drought Monitor is jointly produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. (Map courtesy of NDMC.)

South

Extremely above normal temperatures continued in this region over the past week. Nearly all locations had drought deterioration, with the exceptions of northern Arkansas, northeastern Oklahoma, and coastal Mississippi.

Much of Texas and into the Ark-La-Tex area experienced flash drought conditions. In addition to the heat, these areas received little rainfall in the week.

Significant rainfall was observed over central-to-north Missouri, leading in removal of abnormally dry conditions.

Extreme to exceptional drought conditions are noted in far south Texas, most of northern Texas into western and southern Oklahoma, northwestern and northeastern Arkansas, and along the Arkansas-Mississippi border.

Midwest

Heavy rain also fell in northwestern Iowa and northern Minnesota with drought improvement as a result in these locations.

Extreme drought conditions can be found in southern Missouri and along the borders of Minnesota with both Wisconsin and North Dakota.

High Plains

Eastern Kansas had above normal precipitation; this led to improvement in drought conditions in this area.

Eastern Nebraska and eastern South Dakota also had decent rainfall and resulting improvement to drought. Other areas of South Dakota that missed out on the rain had drought degradation.

Colorado had drought degradations in the center part of the state, with drought improvements in both the southwest and southeast parts. Extreme drought continues over much of Colorado and Wyoming, western Nebraska and the Dakotas, and in eastern North Dakota.

Exceptional drought is observed over much of central Colorado as well as two localized areas in far western Nebraska.

West

An area from southwestern Oregon to central Washington into northern Idaho and Montana received some welcome rainfall during the week.

The rain resulted in regional improvements in drought conditions. One location that just missed out was in northwest Washington on the Canadian border, resulting in a drought degradation, where continued low streamflows were observed.

Looking ahead

Over the next five days leading up to next Tuesday, above normal rainfall is forecast in south Florida as well as a large area in southern Wisconsin and Minnesota into eastern Iowa and northern Illinois.

The latter area of forecasted rainfall continues to the east through central Michigan, the southern Great Lakes, Pennsylvania, New York, and much of central and southern New England.

Other locations with rainfall in the forecast this week are in the Appalachian Mountains, the western Great Plains, and the Four Corners states. Unfortunately, most of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are forecast to receive little rainfall. Dry conditions are also forecast in California, Nevada, and Washington. Much above normal temperatures are forecast to continue this week in the central and southern U.S.

The 6- to 10-day outlook (Sept. 22 to 26) favors above normal temperatures continuing over nearly all of the continental U.S. Areas most likely to be above normal are again the south into the southeast, plus the far north.

The central U.S. into the upper Midwest is likely to have below normal rainfall.

David Mocko is with NASA, GSFC and SSAI.