Unfortunately, little or no rain fell on most of the northern third of the High Plains and southern Plains, drying out conditions in Texas and Oklahoma and worsening the flash drought in eastern Montana and the western Dakotas.
In the Southwest, although June is climatologically dry and warm, extreme heat late in the period, subnormal precipitation during the past 60-days, and some impacts was enough to expand D0 in Utah, central Arizona, and southern New Mexico.
On Hawaii’s Big Island, some deterioration was made as field reports indicated worse conditions than expected while scattered showers in southwestern Alaska were not enough to improve low stream flow levels, thus D0 and D1 was slightly expanded there.
Northeast Scattered showers and thunderstorms (1-3 inches) associated with a cold front finally fell on the last day of the period after a relatively dry and warm June 13-18.
In northeastern Mississippi and northwestern Alabama, moderate to heavy (2-3 inches) rains along the southern edges of the D0-D1 area were enough to trim away some of the drought and dryness; however, northern sections recorded under an inch, and D0 slightly expanded into extreme southern Tennessee with 60-day deficiencies of 2-4 inches.
Some areas in the South did see moderate to heavy (1.5-4 inches) rains (eastern sections of Kansas and Oklahoma, northeastern Texas, southern and central Mississippi, and west-central Tennessee), and this resulted in some D0 removal in southeastern Kansas, northeastern and southeastern Oklahoma, and northeastern Texas.
Moderate to heavy rains (1.5-3 inches) also fell on northern Minnesota (see High Plains), improving some of the D0-D1 by 1-category as April 1-June 20 precipitation was close to or above normal in all but the northwestern section.
High Plains While significant rains (1.5-3 inches) fell across northern and eastern North Dakota, northeastern South Dakota, and northern Minnesota (see Midwest) and provided some relief, little or no rain worsened conditions across eastern Montana, western and southern North Dakota, and the western half of South Dakota.
With May-July normally the wettest time of the year in the northern High Plains (some areas typically receive half to two-thirds of their ANNUAL precipitation), a lack of adequate late spring and early summer rainfall can impact the region for the rest of the year.
Similar to northeastern Montana, southwestern North Dakota and northern South Dakota have seen the lowest precipitation as compared to normal since April, with deficits of 3-6 inches at 60-days and 4-8 inches at 6-months.