Click here to go to the US Drought Monitor website. Here’s an excerpt:
Summary
Numerous storms brought changeable weather to many parts of the country, including significant precipitation in parts of the West, Northeast, and mid-South. Late in the drought-monitoring period, a particularly powerful winter storm produced heavy precipitation from California into the Southwest—and later resulted in a holiday blizzard across the north-central U.S. Meanwhile, the interior Southeast continued to experience varying degrees of drought relief, although streaks of significant rain notably bypassed core drought areas in northern and central Alabama and northern Georgia. In addition, Florida’s peninsula received little rain, exacerbating the effects of short-term dryness…
The Plains
Mild weather returned in the wake of the mid-December Arctic outbreak. A few showers across the central and southern Plains were insufficient to prevent further deterioration in the drought depiction—especially across central and eastern Oklahoma and neighboring areas. In addition, dryness (D0) expanded into much of eastern Kansas, where negligible precipitation has fallen in the last 2 months. From November 1 – December 27, precipitation in Wichita, Kansas, totaled just 0.92 inch (37% of normal).
Farther north, a major winter storm struck the northern Plains on December 25-26. Blizzard conditions engulfed the Dakotas and environs, disrupting holiday travel. From a drought perspective, however, the storm brought highly beneficial moisture to lingering areas of dryness (D0) and moderate to severe drought (D1 and D2) across the northern Plains, resulting in some improvements in the drought depiction…
The West
A pair of storms delivered widespread precipitation (rain and snow) to much of the western U.S., starting around December 22. Some of the most impressive precipitation fell across southern California and the Desert Southwest, where recent improvements have to be viewed through the lens of a multi-year drought that features lingering low reservoir levels; tree mortality; groundwater shortages; and other long-term indicators. Nearly all of the remaining Western drought areas carry the “L” designation, indicative of long-term impacts.
Despite heavy autumn and/or early-winter precipitation nearly region-wide, this season’s accumulated snowpack remains below average in many California and Southwestern basins, owing to several “warm” storms that have produced more rain than snow. For example, California’s Department of Water Resources noted that the average water content of the Sierra Nevada snowpack stood at 6 inches, about 70% of the late-December average but less than one-quarter of the typical April 1 seasonal peak. Still, Western precipitation has been heavy enough in nearly all areas to warrant some improvement in recent weeks, and further improvement could be dictated if strong storms continue to occur and if USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service issues an optimistic Western water-supply outlook in early January…
Looking Ahead
On December 29-30, a significant snow storm will unfold across the Northeast, with wind and snow extending southward through the Appalachians. The heaviest snow should fall in the Adirondacks and much of New England. Late in the week, heavy rain can be expected in parts of the Southeast, with freezing rain possible in the Mid-Atlantic States. Five-day precipitation totals could reach 1 to 3 inches or more in New England and parts of the Southeast. Meanwhile, disorganized Western storminess could result in local totals in excess of an inch, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Generally dry weather will prevail during the next 5 days across the northern and central Plains and the western Corn Belt.
The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for January 3 – 7, 2017, calls for the likelihood of above-normal temperatures across the Alaskan mainland and along the Atlantic Seaboard, while colder-than-normal conditions can be expected across the remainder of the country. Meanwhile, odds will be tilted toward wetter-than-normal weather across most of the U.S., but below-normal precipitation should occur in much of Texas, northern California, and the Northwest.