According to the updated National Drought Monitor, some form of drought now covers 93.4% of Kansas, up from 74% last week. Additionally, moderate drought now covers 35.6% of Kansas, an increase of 13 percentage points from last week. Drought also spread across Oklahoma, with 73% now covered by drought, up from 59% last week. Texas saw just a one-percentage-point increase in drought coverage to 26%.
The monitor notes that while several tenths of an inch of precip fell on parts of western and central Texas, little to no precip was observed in most areas from the southern Rockies into the central and south-central Plains. “The showery weather relieved some of the D0 in western Texas, but farther north and west, abnormal dryness and moderate drought continued to expand,” states the monitor. “D0 conditions worsened to D1 in southern New Mexico, and D1 expanded across central and southern Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and part of Oklahoma. To the north and east, abnormal dryness expanded to cover southern Nebraska and enveloped additional areas in northern Kansas, northern Missouri and west-central Illinois as well. Strong wind gusts reached tropical storm to minimal hurricane force, most significantly in the Oklahoma Panhandle.”
Some relief on its way
The outlook through April 11 provides some hope for drought relief. The monitor notes the forecast includes moderate to heavy rains from central Kansas and eastern Oklahoma northeastward through the Ohio Valley, lower Great Lakes region, the Appalachians and the Northeast. Totals are forecast to range from just under an inch to near 2.5 inches, with the largest amounts expected in and around central and southern Missouri and across New England.
However, the monitor notes it should be a warm five days for most of the Plains and central and northern sections of the Far West, with daily temps averaging 10F to 15F above normal in the northern Intermountain West and adjacent Rockies. “Conversely, unseasonably cold weather should dominate the East, with temperatures on average topping out 10F to 15F below normal from the upper Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes, and Northeast southward into the Ohio Valley, central Appalachians, and mid-Atlantic region,” it states.
The National Weather Service forecast, shown below for April 12-16, calls for a more active precip pattern to benefit dry areas of the Central and Southern Plains, while dry conditions are expected across the Central Corn Belt.
