According to the August 13, 2024 U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 18.9% of the United States including Puerto Rico, an increase from last week’s 18.2%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) decreased from 1.2% last week to 1.0%.
A high-pressure ridge dominated the upper-level circulation pattern over much of the southern and western contiguous U.S. (CONUS) during this U.S. Drought Monitor week (August 7–13). It was responsible for the warmer-than-normal weather that occurred across these regions, and for drier-than-normal weather over the Far West and Deep South. The ridge extended northward across the western half of Canada.
An upper-level trough of low pressure spent much of the week over the Great Lakes region. It sent a cold front into the central and eastern CONUS that was responsible for below-normal weekly temperatures across the central and northern Plains, Midwest, and Northeast. The front stalled out across the Rockies in the west and along the Atlantic Coast in the east. The air was generally dry behind the front, but there was enough moisture for the front to generate above-normal precipitation across the Rockies and into the Plains.
Debby was a tropical storm when she made landfall along the South Carolina coast. The remnants of Debby became absorbed into the front as she moved up the East Coast, and the combination of the front and tropical cyclone generated much above-normal rainfall from the Carolinas to New England.
High pressure kept Hawaii drier than normal this week while a mixed precipitation anomaly pattern occurred over Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drought or abnormal dryness contracted where heavier rain fell along the East Coast and in parts of the Plains to the central Rockies. But the continued dryness and heat expanded or intensified drought or abnormal dryness across parts of the Pacific Northwest, while continued dryness led to expansion or intensification in parts of the Lower to Mid-Mississippi Valley, Upper Ohio Valley, and Hawaii, as well as other parts of the Plains.
Nationally, expansion was more than contraction, so the nationwide moderate to exceptional drought area percentage increased this week. Abnormal dryness and drought are currently affecting over 90 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico—about 29.0% of the population.
The full U.S. Drought Monitor weekly update is available from Drought.gov.
In addition to Drought.gov, you can find further information on the current drought on this week’s Drought Monitor update at the National Drought Mitigation Center.
The most recent U.S. Drought Outlook is available from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s World Agriculture Outlook Board also provides information about the drought’s influence on crops and livestock.
For additional drought information, follow #DroughtMonitor on Facebook and X.
