The latest Drought Monitor shows that drought continues to worsen in the southern High Plains.
Across the continental U.S., 0.55 percent of the country is in D4 (Exceptional) drought.
A growing region of D3 (Extreme) drought conditions covers much of western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, southwest Kansas and extends westward to include northern New Mexico, Arizona, southern Colorado and portions of Utah.
According to the Oklahoma Mesonet system, the Panhandle region of Oklahoma, which includes five counties in northwest Oklahoma and the panhandle, are, for the last 120 days, the driest on record in the entire data period since 1921.
This region has received 1.21 inches of rain, 22 percent of normal for the period.
Nearly as bad are the North Central region (eight counties) with the ninth driest period and the Southwest region (eight counties) with the 11th driest for this time period.
In contrast, the southeast region of the state (five counties bordering Arkansas and northeast Texas) is currently experiencing the eighth wettest 120-day period since Dec. 2, with 22.5 inches of rain, 153 percent of normal precipitation.
The drought has significantly altered winter stocker cattle production and marketing this year.
In the last six weeks from mid-February to the end of March, combined auction totals in the state were down 16.7 percent year over year.
The early marketing of winter grazing cattle has affected the timing of feedlot placements and has implications for seasonal feedlot marketings in the coming months.

It rained last week.
Here is the bad news.
:: Cape Town introduces ‘world’s first water police’ after drought Residents have slashed the amount of water they use in half – from 1.2 billion litres to 522 million litres per day – representing an unprecedented act of collective water conservation.
The city restricts Capetonians to a thrifty 50 litres of water a day but Ms du Toit says her daily usage is around 15 litres, "plus a little bit for our fish tank – we do top it up occasionally."
When you consider that it takes about 20 litres of water just to flush the toilet a couple of times, this Cape Town teacher is something of a revolutionary.
Of course, Ms du Toit is not the only water-revolutionary in town.
Bev Antoncich, the well-coiffured director of the hair salon Perfectly Pampered, runs special "bucket and jug days" at her business.
We would give them a complete bath with the jugs.
Ms Antoncich says she has completely changed about the way she thinks about water and cannot bear the thought of any going to waste.
"You know, I think it would be easier for us if we didn’t have to ‘bucket and jug’ but we will still be saving water," she said.

Cape Town – The drought has broken over large parts of South Africa, it is claimed.
Agricultural meteorologist Johan van den Berg, who specialises in crop insurance at Santam, said although drought conditions were serious and still remained in parts of the Western Cape, it had largely broken.
“It’s possible the Gariep, Vaal, Bloemhof and some other dams may have full storage capacity in the next weeks.
(However) the water situation in the Western Cape remains very serious.
“It’s still too early for any reliable (rain) forecasts for coming months and the next season, and the best indication is for neutral conditions to continue."
Van den Berg said the period from March to July was volatile in terms of rapid changes in sea surface temperatures, which could affect rainfall.
Meanwhile, projects around the Western Cape, such as project Waterdrop, which took place on Saturday, are still in place to ensure that vulnerable individuals receive adequate water supply should Day Zero be reached.
Close to 30 000 people joined Jacaranda FM on Saturday and supported project Waterdrop during the Super Rugby clash between the Vodacom Blue Bulls and the DHL Stormers, to raise funds for installing boreholes with solar pumps at schools.
Those who would like to find out more can visit www.jacarandafm.com for more information.
@TheCapeArgus argusnews@inl.co.za Cape Argus

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Caribbean Drought and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CDPMN) says concerns exist for both long – and short-term drought over the Guianas, in particular northern Suriname.
“With Cuba and Antigua being relatively dry over the past few months, water resources should be monitored for longterm drought that can affect groundwater and large catchments, up until the end of the dry season at least,” the CPDMN said in its April bulletin released here yesterday.
It said that water resources in Belize, particularly the north and south-east of the country, should also be monitored over the possibility of developing drought.
“Copious rainfall during the wet season of 2017 and no large deficits having been built up since the start of the Caribbean dry season in most places,” the CDPMN said, noting that south-eastern Haiti is under a long-term drought.
According to the CPDMN, mixed conditions were experienced in the islands of the eastern Caribbean for the month of February.
It said Trinidad was slightly dry to slightly wet, with Tobago and St Lucia slight to moderately wet, while Grenada was extremely wet and Barbados very wet.
The CPDMN said that St Vincent and St Maarten were slightly wet, with the French island of Martinique normal to very wet and Guadeloupe slightly dry to slightly wet.
Antigua was reported to be slightly dry during the month of February and St Kitts moderately dry, while in Guyana the situation ranged from slightly dry in south-west Guyana to moderately wet in the north-east, with both Suriname and French Guiana being normal to slightly wet.
Conditions in Jamaica ranged from exceptionally dry in the south to slightly wet in the northwest, while Belize ranged from extremely wet in the west to slightly wet in the south and moderately wet in the north.

Jerry Brown called off California’s drought emergency a year ago, we Californians seem to have gotten a little lazy when it comes to water conservation.
On April 7, 2017, the day Brown issued an executive order calling off the drought emergency, the Sierra snowpack was 164 percent of average.
Since May 2015, the State Water Resources Control Board, an agency that emerged during the drought as California water cop, had been requiring every city and water district to cut its water use by a certain amount.
Take a city like Palmdale, where water use rose 5 percent after the drought was called off compared to the same period in 2016.
Palmdale allowed people to water their lawns more often, and backed off on enforcement.
“And if the state says the drought is over, and if customers don’t see a change in the rules, that kind of undermines the credibility of next time we really need them to save water.” Other cities, like Redlands, didn’t change any of its water rules, but officials suspect their customers started to slack off because they’re hearing mixed messages about the need to conserve.
And that was feeding back into more political action, and more media coverage.” But since Brown called off the drought, media coverage has also dried up.
“If people were collecting shower water to flush their toilets, I think they should take a break,” she said.
What about in my city?
Santa Monica’s new water neutrality ordinance, passed three months after Gov.

As a consequence, the people who run the city decided to change the rules.
Residents were restricted to just 50 litres of water and a host of everyday practices are prohibited under a series of measures known locally as "level 6B".
Washing cars with municipal water is illegal.
"People turned around and said to themselves ‘we have to stop blaming the city for this’," says Mr Bosman.
Everywhere you go people are talking about water now."
To help enforce "level 6B", the city now employs more than 60 officers as part of a specialised water inspectorate.
"These people are using the municipal supply – as you can see there is the pipe," said Officer Maxim as he gestured towards a hose pipe lying in a large pool of water.
"You are not allowed to use the municipal (water) supply and you know that," said the exasperated-sounding officer.
We saw Cape Town’s water police deal with a host of other incidents over the course of a couple of days and like the drought itself, their presence on the streets is viewed by many as a basic fact of life.
I mean, water, why water?"

Antigua and Barbuda is experiencing what is called a meteorological drought.
And, conditions associated with this phenomenon are expected to worsen in the coming weeks.
Climatologist Dale Destin says it could even last up to six months.
According to the latest climate outlook, dry weather patterns will continue to dominate.
Destin says signs of the dry weather are becoming quite evident, with Potworks Dam transitioning from a water catchment to a temporary seasonal desert.
And, based on the latest round of forecasts, Antigua and Barbuda will likely be facing more than a meteorological drought.
Destin says for the medium term: at the end of the nine-month period ending June 2018, a drought watch is in effect, as a moderate drought, or worse, is possible for Antigua.
Meanwhile, for the long-term: 12-month period ending August 2018, a drought warning is also in effect.
Other droughts that could be on the way, if not already here, are agrometeorological, Hydrological, socioeconomic and ecological droughts.

Ross D. Franklin, AP FILE – In this July 21, 2012 file photo a large dust storm, or haboob, sweeps across downtown Phoenix.
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File) ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Drought is tightening its grip across a wide swath of the American Southwest as farmers, ranchers and water managers throughout the region brace for what’s expected to be more warm and dry weather through the spring.
On the southern high plains, Oklahoma is ground zero for the worst drought conditions in the United States.
The exceptional drought in the Panhandle — an area dominated by agriculture — has more than doubled in size.
Many farmers rely on precipitation to help water their crops as pumping groundwater is the only other option.
Water orders will begin next week and officials with the local Irrigation district are encouraging growers to use their surface water as soon as crops demand it.
In Arizona, there’s concern for ranchers as the poor range conditions have left stock tanks dry.
Arizona residents have been living with a continuous drought declaration for years, said Tom Buschatzke, director of the state’s Department of Water Resources.
Part of that is due to the situation within the state’s own boundaries but also what’s happening along the Colorado River, which supplies water to about 40 million people and 6,300 square miles of farmland in seven states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
"It’s getting to the point where the debate will continue to ramp up about whether this is really a drought or whether this is the new normal, what’s the expected future," Buschatzke said.

The dry pattern continued for the drought stricken areas of the southern Rockies and Plains and parts of the Southeast.
Recent precipitation allowed D0 to be contracted in northern Maryland and D1 to be contracted around Washington D.C. Southeast Precipitation was above normal (1-2 inch surplus) across much of Virginia and North Carolina during the USDM period.
In Florida, recent dryness has continued, prompting the expansion of D0 in the central part of the state where the 180-day precipitation deficits are 7-10 inches.
South Precipitation was generally above normal (0.5-2.0 inch surpluses) across north central Texas, eastern Oklahoma and extreme northwestern Arkansas during the USDM period.
Moderate and Extreme drought was expanded in central and parts of southern Texas.
Precipitation continues to miss western Oklahoma where 28-day streamflows are running below the fifth percentile and precipitation for the last 6-months is around 20 percent of normal.
High Plains Precipitation was light across the region during the USDM period as, generally speaking, less than 1 inch of precipitation fell.
At the 6-month time scale, precipitation amounts are 30-50 percent of normal in Southern California.
However, for the same period (6-month), the recent storm brought the precipitation totals closer to normal in the central and northern Sierra.
Elsewhere, lighter precipitation is forecasted to fall in the northern and central Rockies, High Plains, and Northeast.

A week later the protests became more tense.
Dozens of riot police on motorcycles faced off against farmers in the same town, Varzaneh, another video showed.
“What’s called drought is more often the mismanagement of water,” said a journalist in Varzaneh, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.
At least 25 people were killed and, according to one parliamentarian, up to 3,700 people were arrested, the biggest challenge yet for the government of president Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected last year.
Rights groups say it has driven many people from their homes.
One of the dead was a farmer, CHRI said, and locals said water rights were the main grievance.
Since the January protests, Rouhani has repeatedly said the government will do what it can to address grievances.
A senior Revolutionary Guards commander, Yahya Rahim Safavi, noted in a public speech in late February that water will play a key role for both the Islamic Republic’s national and regional security.
In late February, three more environmentalists were arrested and three weeks ago, Seyed-Emami’s wife was prevented from leaving Iran, according to family members.
“So the government may see the organizations and institutions who work on environmental issues as problematic.”