According to the July 9, 2024 U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 16.4% of the United States including Puerto Rico, an increase from last week’s 15.8%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) increased slightly from 0.8% last week to 0.9%.
The upper-level circulation pattern over the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) was locked in place during this U.S. Drought Monitor week (July 3–9). Ridges of high pressure were anchored over the East Coast and over the West, with a trough of low pressure inhabiting the Plains to Mississippi River Valley. Fronts and surface lows moved over the western ridge and congregated in the Midwestern trough. As a result, weekly temperatures averaged cooler than normal from the Rockies to the Great Lakes, but temperatures were warmer than normal along the West Coast, East Coast, and southern tier states.
Looking across the CONUS from west to east: The western ridge kept most of the West dry this week. Fed by Gulf of Mexico moisture, the fronts generated areas of above-normal rain across much of the Plains and Midwest and parts of the Southeast. To complicate matters, Hurricane Beryl brought heavy rain as it tracked across eastern Texas near the end of this USDM week. The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast were mostly drier than normal beneath the eastern ridge. Outside the CONUS: Cooler- and wetter-than-normal weather moved across western to central Alaska, while Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands mostly remained drier than normal this week.
Drought or abnormal dryness contracted where heavier rain fell across parts of the Southwest, central Plains, Midwest, and Southeast, as well as part of Alaska. But the continued dryness and heat expanded or intensified drought or abnormal dryness in the Pacific Northwest to the northern High Plains, across parts of the southern Plains, and from the Southeast to Mid-Atlantic states, as well as parts of Hawaii.
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 141 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico—about 45.3% of the population.
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.
