Click here to go to the US Drought Monitor website. Here’s an excerpt:
Summary
PLEASE NOTE – The Drought Monitor reflects observed precipitation through Tuesday, 1200 UTC (8 am, EDT); any rain that has fallen after the Tuesday 1200 UTC cutoff will be reflected in next week’s map.
During the 7-day period (ending Tuesday morning), widespread heavy rain eased drought but caused local flooding from Oklahoma to the Carolina Coast. In contrast, dry, hot conditions caused drought to intensify over the lower Southeast, though tropical downpours afforded some drought relief in southern Florida. Additional improvements to drought intensity and coverage were noted in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic in response to late-spring rain as well as recovering groundwater levels. Conditions also improved on the central Plains, while drought remained largely unchanged elsewhere…
High Plains
Wet weather brought drought relief to the southern half of the region, while conditions remained unchanged on the northern High Plains’ long-term drought areas (denoted by an “L” on the map). Precipitation amounts were highly variable, but well-placed moderate to heavy rain and wet snow (1-3 inches liquid equivalent, locally more) led to reductions of Abnormal Dryness (D0) and Moderate Drought (D1) over southern-most portions of Wyoming, northern and northeastern Colorado, as well as the northwestern and southeastern corners of Kansas. Additional D1 and D0 reductions were made from eastern Colorado into southwestern Kansas despite lighter rainfall (half inch or less), as precipitation totals over the past 90 days were now mostly well above normal, with 30-day totals locally more than three times normal. Meanwhile, despite recent wet weather, long-term deficits linger in the north’s D1 and D0 areas; 12-month precipitation stood at 65 to 80 percent of normal in northeastern Wyoming and adjacent portions of the Dakotas, though some parts of southwestern South Dakota were closer to normal and may be removed from D0 in the near future…
West
As the region’s climatological wet season draws to a close, there were no changes made to the drought depiction from the Rockies into the Southwest. Farther east, well-placed moderate to heavy rain and wet snow (1-3 inches liquid equivalent, locally more) led to reductions of Abnormal Dryness (D0) and Moderate Drought (D1) over southern-most portions of Wyoming as well as northern and northeastern Colorado. Additional D1 and D0 reductions were made in eastern Colorado despite lighter rainfall (half inch or less), as precipitation totals over the past 90 days were now mostly well above normal, with 30-day totals locally more than three times normal…
Looking Ahead
The focus for heavy rainfall will shift to the nation’s mid-section over the next 5 days. An area of low pressure and its attendant cold front will produce moderate to heavy showers and thunderstorms as it moves from the Mississippi Valley toward southern Canada and the Atlantic Seaboard, though rain from this system will largely bypass the East Coast States. In its wake, another storm system will develop over the south-central U.S. during the weekend and lift slowly northeastward, producing heavy rain from the central Gulf Coast into the central Great Lakes Region; moderate to heavy wet snow is likely in the colder air on the northwest side of the storm over central and southern portions of the Rockies and High Plains. Combined, these two storms are expected to produce a large swath of 1- to 3-inch precipitation totals from the central Plains to the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley, with excessive rainfall (4-12 inches) possible from the northern Delta into the central Corn Belt. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for May 2 – 6 calls for above-normal precipitation across much of the nation east of the Mississippi as well as central and northern portions of the Rockies and High Plains. Conversely, drier-than-normal conditions are expected from Texas into the upper Midwest and from the Great Basin into the Northwest. Colder-than-normal conditions from the western slopes of the Appalachians to the High Plains will contrast with warmer-than-normal readings along the Atlantic Coast as well as California and the Southwest.