Click on a thumbnail graphic to view a gallery of drought data from the US Drought Monitor website.

Click the link to go to the US Drought Monitor website. Here’s an excerpt:

This Week’s Drought Summary

It was a week with a lot of change noted in areas of dryness and drought across the U.S. Heavy to locally excessive rainfall engendered broad areas of improvement in much of the Southeast, the lower Great Lakes Region, the central and northern Great Plains, and many locations across the High Plains and adjacent southern Rockies. Meanwhile, continued subnormal precipitation and episodes of unusually hot weather, low humidity, and high winds led to large areas of deterioration in the central and northern Rockies. Also, emerging short-term precipitation deficits led to the introduction of scattered areas of abnormal dryness (D0) over parts of the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley, the Tennessee Valley, and near the western foothills of the western Appalachians. A few spots of deterioration were also introduced in western portions of the Southeast (where typical summer shower and thunderstorm activity has been less robust than usual) and Southwest (where subnormal monsoonal rains have been observed)…

High Plains

Rainfall varied in intensity across the High Plains Region, with abundant rainfall amounts falling on a large part of the Plains while lesser, subnormal totals were observed in the higher elevations farther west. A similar pattern has been observed periodically for several weeks now, resulting in significantly worse conditions in the western part of the region than farther east. A solid swath of moderate drought (D1) or worse covers most of southern and western Wyoming and the western half of Colorado, with severe drought (D2) covering a large part of this region, and extreme drought (D3) noted in a sizeable portion of west-central and northwestern Colorado. This represents a significant increase in the extend of D2 and D3 coverage compared to last week. In contrast, another wet week led to a continued reduction in the coverage of the abnormal dryness (D0) to locally severe drought (D2) over the Great Plains. A broken pattern of heavy rainfall – with upwards of 3 inches reported in spots – prevailed from northern Kansas through much of the Dakotas, although higher amounts were more common in some areas than others. The improvements left severe drought confined to part of south-central Nebraska and adjacent Kansas, southwestern Nebraska, and a small area in south-central South Dakota. Moderate drought (D1) coverage also decreased, mainly across Nebraska and a few adjacent locations in the far eastern sections of Colorado and Wyoming. The USDA reported short or very short subsoil moisture across about one-third of Colorado and two-thirds of Wyoming. In addition, 17 percent of the Colorado corn crop was in poor or very poor condition, and drier weather earlier in the summer has left one-third of the Nebraska oat crop in poor or very poor condition…

West

Heavy precipitation prompted significant areas of improvement across the southeastern and northern sections of the West Region, but hot and dry weather has caused dryness and drought to intensify in central parts of the Region, across Utah, eastern Nevada, and northeastern Arizona (similar to the situation in western parts of Colorado and Wyoming). Reports of 2 or more inches of rain were fairly common across southeastern and north-central through northwestern Montana as well as northeastern New Mexico, with lesser amounts in other parts of these states. These rains brought 2-week totals to between 2 and 5 inches in much of New Mexico and Montana, with locally higher totals, especially in north-central Montana and northeastern New Mexico. This prompted broad improvements through both states, but even so, areas that missed most of the rain in these states remained entrenched in drought. Exceptional drought (D4) persisted in part of southwestern New Mexico, and extreme drought (D3) remained across north-central and southwestern parts of the state, along with a significant swath of west-central Montana. Moderate to severe drought still affected a large part of the remainders of these states despite improvements, and only the southeastern quarter of Montana and northeastern New Mexico have completely emerged from any designation of dryness or drought. Farther west, showery weather has occurred periodically for the past few weeks in central and eastern Oregon, leading to a reduction in the coverage of dryness and drought there. Across central parts of the West Region from eastern Nevada through Utah, rainfall has been far less generous, and drought either persisted or deteriorated here. The entire region is experiencing at least moderate drought at this point, with widespread D2 conditions across eastern and western Utah, and adjacent Nevada. Some expansion of extreme drought (D3) occurred in east-central and northeastern Utah, where conditions have been similar to those observed across western parts of Colorado and Wyoming. Elsewhere, no changes were observed, and broad areas of drought remained entrenched. USDA reports that 50 percent of the Barley crop and 48 percent of the spring wheat crop in Washington was in poor or very poor condition, as were 26 percent of the barley crop and 47 percent of spring wheat in Montana. In addition, 90 percent of Nevada rangeland was in poor or very poor condition…

South

Outside southern and western Texas, not much dryness or drought has been observed across the South Region. But after a few relatively dry weeks, short-term precipitation shortfalls have developed in portions of Arkansas and Tennessee, leading to the introduction of a few patches of abnormal dryness (D0) in areas of significant 30-day rainfall shortages and near- to below-normal 60-day totals. A much larger proportion of these two states report 30-day precipitation deficits, but above-normal 60-day totals precluded more expansive D0 development this week, although the situation will need to be monitored going forward. In Tennessee, some patches of abnormal dryness and isolated moderate drought (D0 and D1) was assessed last week. In the easternmost parts of the state, heavy rains engendered a bit of improvement, but the burgeoning dryness farther west allowed a few additional spots of moderate drought to develop. To the west, rainfall was sufficient to end the fledgling area of abnormal dryness in southwestern Oklahoma, but more widespread and intense drought continued to cover large parts of western and southern Texas. Moderate to heavy rainfall was observed over parts of the drought-affected region, leading to some improvement in the Big Bend and along the northern fringe of the region. Substantial rainfall evaded areas farther to the south, however, allowing for some expansion of D0 and D1 conditions in the southernmost parts of the state. Since early May, rainfall totals exceed 3 inches in portions of south-central Texas, and approach 6 inches in part of the Big Bend. Despite recent improvement in much of the state, however, a small patch of exceptional drought (D4) persisted in upper South Texas, and severe drought continued in adjacent areas as well as parts of the Rio Grande Valley and Big Bend. But despite recent drought improvement, 22 percent of the Texas cotton crop and 48 percent of its oat crop was in poor to very poor conditions, according to USDA.

Looking Ahead

From August 7 to 11, an area of showers and thunderstorms off the Southeastern Coast may develop into a tropical system according to the National Hurricane Center, but this is far from certain. Any organized system is expected to remain off the East Coast, but early in the period the disorganized convection is expected to impact the South Atlantic Coastline. Generally 1 to locally over 3 inches of rain are forecast for coastal sections of South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida while similar amounts are forecast along the central and eastern Gulf Coast, and much of the Florida Peninsula. Between 1 and 3 inches are anticipated near a frontal system stretching from the Middle Mississippi Valley into the Great Lakes Region, and amounts in the lower part of that range are forecast in scattered parts of the central and northern Plains. Moderate amounts of several tenths to around an inch should fall in many areas from the Upper Mississippi Valley into the Northern Intermountain West, portions of the central Plains, and areas near the Southeastern and Gulf Coasts. Light precipitation is possible in parts of the central and eastern Four Corners States, the central Ohio Valley, the southern Appalachians, the mid-Atlantic, and upper New England. Other areas are expecting little if any precipitation. Meanwhile a cooler than normal but moderating air mass should allow temperatures to average near or slightly below normal in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic while daily highs should average a few degrees below normal in and around the northern High Plains. In most other locations, temperatures should average a little above normal as above-normal temperatures begin to slowly cover most of the Contiguous States. The greatest positive temperature departures are expected where above-normal temperatures have already settled in, specifically parts of the interior West and the Northeast, where highs will average 6 to 12 deg. F in spots.

The Climate Prediction Center’s 6-10 day outlook (valid August 12-16, 2025) features significant uncertainty in the precipitation outlook. Odds for above-normal precipitation exceeding 40 percent across most of Alaska outside the northeast and southwest sections, and nowhere else. There are, however, fairly broad areas with slightly enhanced chances (33 to 40 percent) for wetter than normal wetter; specifically, the remainder of Alaska, the northern tier of the Contiguous 48 States, the Sonoran Desert, the eastern Great Plains, the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, the Great Lakes Region, the upper Southeast, the mid-Atlantic, and inland sections of the Northeast and New England. Drier than normal conditions are slightly favored in the Great Basin and adjacent sections of the Rockies and Pacific Northwest. There is more certainty in the temperature forecast, with above-normal temperatures favored across a large part of the Contiguous States, and Hawaii. The best odds (over 70 percent) cover the Northeast and New England while the central West Coast, parts of the Four Corners States, the eastern Great Lakes, the mid-Atlantic, the coastal Southeast, and the Florida Peninsula have 60 to 70 percent chances for unusually high temperatures. Only Alaska and the northern High Plains are not areas where warmer than normal conditions are favored. In fact, subnormal temperatures are favored over most of Alaska, with odds topping 60 percent in northwestern parts of the state.

Just for grins here’s a slideshow of early August US Drought Monitor maps for the past few years (including 2002).