National Drought Summary - April 1, 2008
The Plains:
Locally heavy snows lifted parts of eastern South Dakota out of D0 and reduced the southward extent of D1 in northeastern South Dakota. Meanwhile, 1 to 3 inches of rain improved conditions to D0 for a small section of central Texas, and 0.5 to locally 2.0 inches of precipitation dampened the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northeastern Wisconsin, but was not enough to improve the abnormally dry conditions in those areas. Elsewhere, light to locally moderate precipitation fell on the rest of South Dakota, western Nebraska, eastern Wyoming, and several other locations scattered across the northern Plains while little or nothing fell from western Kansas and eastern Colorado southward to the Mexican border. As a result, D0 and D1 conditions expanded in southern and western New Mexico, and D3 was introduced in a large part of western North Dakota where recent conditions have been particularly dry. In most these areas where dryness and drought intensified, precipitation totals for the last 6 months have been less than half of normal, and under 25 percent of normal since the beginning of the calendar year.
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© 2008 National Drought Mitigation Center