U.S. Drought Update

U.S. Drought Update

Posted on September 20, 2022 by Ed Vallee

This blog serves as a drought update for the United States through the first half of September 2022.

The latest drought monitor from September 15 for the United States is below, highlighting drought in the central and western U.S., but also New England…

Week over week, some minor drier trends were noted in the Midwest and northern Plains, while the Southwest and parts of TX trended a bit wetter.

The bigger story is the 4 week change, which is a ton wetter in the southern Plains and Mississippi Delta. Some relief also noted in New England, while the northern Plains and Rockies did trend drier.

Month to date precipitation (through September 19th) has been dry across much of the northern tier (sans new England) while California and Florida were much wetter than normal.

The forward looking 15 day outlook (valid through October 4th) is not very generous with respect to moisture outside of the 4 Corners and East coast, so drier trends are possible moving forward for most of the United States.

Bottom line: drought has improved across parts of New England and the southern Plains over the past month while parts of the northern Rockies and Plains have trended drier. The East Coast and Southwest may get a bit wetter into early October, but much of the country leans warm and dry to end September…

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