U.S. Drought: Weekly Report for January 24, 2023

According to the January 24, 2023 U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 36.0% of the United States including Puerto Rico, a decrease from last week’s 36.7%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) decreased from 6.6% last week to 6.3%.

A series of Pacific weather systems continued to move through the jet stream flow across the contiguous U.S. during this U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) week (January 18-24). The storm track shifted to the north as an upper-level ridge built over the eastern Pacific and along the West Coast, giving California a break from the incessant flooding rains. 

The cold fronts and surface lows associated with the Pacific weather systems weakened as they penetrated the ridge, but they intensified over the Southwest and when they moved into the Plains and eastward. The ridge kept much of the West drier than normal this week. The southern and northern Plains, and the southern to central Appalachians, were also drier than normal. However, the weather systems tapped Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic moisture to spread above-normal precipitation across parts of the Southwest and much of the central Plains, Midwest, Northeast, and coastal Southeast. 

Temperatures averaged cooler than normal across much of the West, but were warmer than normal over the northern Plains and along and east of the Mississippi River. Drought or abnormal dryness contracted across parts of the West, central Plains, Midwest, and Southeast Coast. Drought or abnormal dryness expanded in a few other parts of the West and in a few places in the southern Plains and Hawaii. Nationally, contraction exceeded expansion, with the nationwide moderate to exceptional drought area decreasing this week.

Abnormal dryness and drought are currently affecting over 139 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico—about 44.9% of the population