Very little improvement on Montana’s Drought Monitor this week despite the recent cool and wet weather.
The only exception is the far southern counties of Montana with no drought reported from Lima to West Yellowstone to Cooke City to Red Lodge.
The overall percentages have not change substantially this week and here is the breakdown: Exceptional Drought = 18%, Extreme Drought = 43%, Severe Drought = 70% and Moderate Drought = 85% of Montana.
Although there is high mountain snow covering most peaks across Montana it will take a substantial amount of wet weather for Northern and Eastern counties to climb out of the current drought. The departures from normal on yearly precipitation is roughly between 3" and 8" below normal or another way to put it is about 35% to 75% of normal.