National Drought Summary - April 1, 2008
Looking Ahead:
In general, April 2 – 7, 2008 is expected to feature beneficial precipitation in the dry areas across the eastern half of the country, but only spotty, marginal relief at best through the rest of the contiguous 48 states. Between 3 and 4 inches of rain is forecast across Tennessee and adjacent sections of Alabama and Mississippi, and at least 1.5 inches is expected through the mid-Atlantic region, the Carolinas, Florida, much of northern Alabama and Mississippi, southeastern Arkansas, and northeastern Louisiana. Generally 0.5 to 1.5 inches should fall on the remaining areas of dryness and drought in the Southeast, in addition to central and northern sections of Minnesota, parts of southwestern Nebraska and western Montana, and a small section of coastal southern California. In the remaining dry areas, less than 0.5 inch is forecast, with little or none projected for the southern half of the High Plains, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming. Meanwhile, daily high temperatures should average near to somewhat below normal across the central and northern states, with slightly above average values expected along the southern tier of states.
For the ensuing 5 days, the odds favor wetter than normal conditions in the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern dry areas, the Plains from northern Texas to the Canadian border, and the easternmost sections of the central and northern Rockies. In contrast, below normal precipitation is favored for roughly the southwestern half of Texas, most of New Mexico, Arizona, all but the northernmost reaches of California, Nevada, and Utah, and the D0 area in Alaska. The odds favor neither above nor below normal precipitation in other areas of dryness and drought. Meanwhile, warmer than normal conditions are favored in the dry areas of the eastern states and in southern Texas while unusually cool weather is more likely in most of the West and across Alaska.Note: The discussion in the Looking Ahead section is simply a description of what the official national guidance from the National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction is depicting for current areas of dryness and drought. The NWS forecast products utilized include the HPC 5-day QPF and 5-day Mean Temperature progs, the 6-10 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, and the 8-14 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, valid as of late Wednesday afternoon of the USDM release week. The NWS forecast web page used for this section is: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/forecasts/.
Visit our full-service website at drought.unl.edu/dm.
© 2008 National Drought Mitigation Center