The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) has issued its extended weather forecasts. The outlook for April calls for above-normal temps in all areas east of the Rocky Mountains. The precip forecast calls for dry conditions in the four-corner-states region, as well as along the Gulf Coast States. Above-normal precip is expected in the eastern Corn Belt.
The CPC’s outlook for April through June calls for above-normal temps across the South and eastern Corn Belt to the East Coast. Equal chances of normal, below- and above-normal temps are expected across the remainder of the Corn Belt. Below-normal precip is expected in areas of the West and in the Gulf’s southern states, with equal chances of normal, below- and above-normal precip expected elsewhere.
As a result of the forecast and the current soil moisture profile, CPC says in its Seasonal Drought Outlook that drought will improve in the Upper Midwest and across the Central and Southern Plains. But it expects drought to persist in western Texas and the Southwest.
It states, “During the remainder of March, more beneficial precipitation can be expected across the Great Plains, especially across southeast Kansas, Oklahoma and northern/central Texas. This March precipitation coupled with an increasingly wet climatology favor improvement across parts of the Great Plains along with the western Corn Belt and upper Mississippi Valley. Prospects for improvement diminish across the central/southern high Plains, while persistence is expected across the Southwest,” it states.
Check the following links for maps of forecasts:
