National Drought Summary - April 1, 2008
The Southeast and Mid-Atlantic:
Once again, a storm system brought heavy rain to parts of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, but dropped much lower totals on the areas of dryness and drought in the Southeast and middle Atlantic regions. Between 2 and 4 inches fell on portions of central and southeastern Tennessee and isolated sites across Georgia, but totals of 0.5 to locally 2.0 inches were more common in the D0 to D3 areas, with even lower amounts reported in the northern and western mid-Atlantic region, southwestern Virginia, the central and western Carolinas, northern and west-central Georgia, eastern Alabama, and most of Florida.
As a result, the areas of dryness and drought depicted last week changed little. D3 conditions improved to D2 in a small section of southeastern Tennessee which received the heaviest rainfall last week. Meanwhile, D1 to D2 conditions expanded a bit in central and northern Virginia and parts of southern Maryland and Delaware.
In addition, little or no precipitation fell on the southern half of Mississippi, much of eastern Louisiana, and adjacent Arkansas. Since early October 2007, these areas have received 4 to locally 12 inches less precipitation than normal, and as a result, D0 conditions were introduced this week.
Over the last few months, precipitation in the areas of dryness and drought has been closer to normal than was the case for much of 2007, but has still been below normal. For the last 90 days, precipitation totals in a large part of the dry region have been within 4 inches of normal, with larger deficits restricted to southern sections of Maryland and Delaware, the Piedmont sections of Virginia and the Carolinas, northern Georgia, the central Gulf Coast, northeastern Louisiana, and southeastern Arkansas. As a result, large long-term precipitation deficits continue to affect the region, with most areas from the western Carolinas southward through Florida and westward across Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and adjacent sections of Arkansas and Louisiana reporting amounts 1 to 2 feet below normal since early April 2006.
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© 2008 National Drought Mitigation Center