According to the June 4, 2024 U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 10.2% of the United States including Puerto Rico, a decrease from last week’s 10.5%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) stayed about the same as last week’s 0.6%.
The upper-level circulation over North America during this U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) week (May 29–June 4) consisted of a ridge of high pressure over Mexico and a trough of low pressure over western Canada. This overall pattern forced a strong zonal (westerly) jet stream flow into the western contiguous U.S. (CONUS). Pacific weather systems moved across the CONUS through the westerly flow in between the ridge and trough. The Pacific systems dragged cold fronts and low-pressure systems at the surface with them. The fronts and surface lows mostly moved across the northern tier states, bringing above-normal precipitation to parts of the Pacific Northwest, central to northern Plains, and Upper Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes. After crossing the Rockies, some of the fronts extended into the Gulf Coast states, where they tapped Gulf-of-Mexico moisture to spread above-normal precipitation across the southern Great Plains to Lower Mississippi Valley.
Much of the West received no precipitation, while much of the East Coast and Midwest and parts of the northern Plains were drier than normal. Weekly temperatures averaged warmer than normal in the Southwest, New England, Florida, and much of the Plains, with cooler-than-normal temperatures dominating in the Pacific Northwest, much of the country between the Mississippi River and East Coast, and parts of the southern Plains. The above-normal precipitation contracted drought and abnormal dryness in parts of the Pacific Northwest, northern Rockies, Great Plains, and Upper Midwest. Persistent dry conditions resulted in expansion or intensification of drought or abnormal dryness in parts of the Northeast, Midwest, and southern Texas, and much of the Florida peninsula.
Nationally, contraction was more than expansion, so the nationwide moderate to exceptional drought area percentage decreased this week. Abnormal dryness and drought are currently affecting over 47 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico—about 15.4% 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 as well as 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 and the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides information about the drought’s influence on crops and livestock.
For additional drought information, follow #DroughtMonitor on Facebook and X.
