California and National Drought Summary for April 24, 2018 Summary April 26, 2018 – The southern High Plains’ second wildfire outbreak in less than a week preceded the arrival of storm system that provided much-needed rainfall on April 20-21.
Rainfall in the Plains’ drought-affected areas generally totaled around an inch or less.
Rain provided modest drought relief in Oklahoma and northern Texas, but did not reach most of the region’s other drought-affected areas.
Meanwhile, some expansion of dryness (D0) and moderate to extreme drought (D1 to D3) was observed across western, central, and southern Texas.
However, dry weather persisted across northern Missouri and southern Iowa, where there was some expansion of abnormal dryness (D0) and moderate drought (D1).
By April 22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that topsoil moisture was 19% very short to short in Missouri, up from 12% a week earlier.
Following the previous week’s significant drought reductions across the northern Plains, there were no further changes during the drought-monitoring period that ended on the morning of April 24.
On April 22, topsoil moisture was rated 64% very short to short in Kansas and 53% very short to short in Colorado.
Statewide, Oregon’s topsoil moisture was rated 26% very short to short by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on April 22, up from 18% the previous week.
Arizona’s rangeland and pastures were in even worse shape-79% very poor to poor on April 22, compared to the statewide 5-year average of 34%.