Improvement in drought in the South Central U.S. over the past few months has been a welcome surprise, considering that La Niña winters such as this one, with cooler than normal sea surface temperatures prevailing, are typically warmer and drier. That was the assessment by Mark Svoboda, NDMC Monitoring program area leader, who provided an update on drought in Texas and the southern United States for the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program's Managing Drought webinar on Feb. 23, 2012. But according to long-term outlooks, much of the area may be contending with ongoing and intensifying drought. View the entire presentation on You Tube.