U.S. Drought: Weekly Report for November 8, 2022

According to the November 8, 2022, U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 50.5% of the United States including Puerto Rico, a decrease from last week’s 52.5%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) decreased from 12.1% last week to 11.8%. 

A series of Pacific weather systems moved into the western contiguous U.S. during this U.S. Drought Monitor week. They formed, and were enhanced by, an upper-level trough in the jet stream flow that sat squarely over the West. An upper-level ridge developed over the eastern CONUS to counterbalance the western trough. 

Cold fronts and surface low pressure systems brought rain and snow to much of the West, with the week ending up wetter than normal. As they moved east of the Rockies, some of the fronts picked up Gulf of Mexico moisture to spread above-normal precipitation across parts of the central Plains and much of the Mississippi Valley. But most of the Plains, Southeast, and Ohio Valley to Northeast had a drier-than-normal week. 

Temperatures averaged cooler than normal beneath the western trough and warmer than normal east of the Rockies beneath the upper-level ridge. Drought and abnormal dryness contracted in parts of the Pacific Northwest and northern California, as well as portions of the central and southern Plains to Mississippi Valley, where the heaviest rains fell, and along the escarpment of western North Carolina, in Upstate South Carolina, and in Hawaii. But drought or abnormal dryness expanded or intensified in other parts of the Plains, in much of the Southeast, and from the Ohio Valley into the Northeast. Nationally, contraction exceeded expansion, with the nationwide moderate to exceptional drought area decreasing this week. 

Abnormal dryness and drought are currently affecting over 231 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico—about 74.2% of the population.