Poof!
Abundant winter and spring rains have decimated large regions of drought that afflicted the nation.
In October, the start of the water year, drought covered 84 percent of the Golden State.
Storm after storm crashed into the West Coast off the Pacific Ocean during the winter and spring months, unloading copious amounts of low elevation rain and high elevation snow.
Recall that in the fall, severe drought afflicted portions of Alabama, Georgia, the western Carolinas and Tennessee, intensifying wildfires that erupted in the region.
Only patchy areas of drought now remain in the Lower 48, most notably in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, an area from central Virginia to central Maryland, including the District, and extreme southwest Arizona and Southern California.
But the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center forecasts “likely removal” of the drought in Florida in the summer because of frequent sea breeze thunderstorms that tend to form in the afternoon.
This area may become prone to wildfires as the summer wears on — much like it was last year.
While drought is all but gone in most other parts of the United States, unusually wet conditions have replaced it.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Extremes Index, which expresses the percentage of the nation dealing with abnormal weather, ranks highest in recorded history (for the period spanning January to March).