The latest Drought Monitor was released this morning and it shows little to no precipitation happened this week throughout the U.S., worsening conditions for the West and much of the Great Plains with above normal temperatures. The most significant rainfall was seen in the upper Mississippi valley, Northern New England and the Florida peninsula totaling at half an inch.
Farmers in the West are heading into their seventh consecutive week without any meaningful rain or snow. USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey says a storm coming for much of the country will not impact the West, causing yet another disappointment this season.
“We have not only not added any snowpack, but during the recent spell of record-setting warmth across the West, we started to erode those mountain snowpacks especially at lower and middle elevations. So as we started the new year, early 2022, we had about 16 inches of liquid locked up in that Sierra Nevada snowpack in California’s key watershed areas.”
Rippey says that number is even less now, the heat melted half an inch of that reserve.
Related:
Western Water Supply Worries Continue
U.S. Drought Monitor Hits Hot New Record
Current drought conditions may lead to new records