During the 7-day period ending Tuesday morning, areas of heavy to excessive rainfall provided widespread drought relief across the central and southern Atlantic Coast States and from Texas northward into Montana and the Dakotas.
Likewise, short-term dryness continued to develop in parts of New England.
Click on graphic to animate High Plains The overall trend toward improving conditions in the south contrasting with increasingly dry weather in the far north continued, though some northerly areas benefited from locally heavy rain.
In southern Kansas, another week with moderate to locally heavy showers (1-3 inches, as high as 3.72 inches in Longton, KS) led to widespread reductions of drought intensity and coverage.
Moderate to heavy rainfall (locally more than 3 inches) in northeastern Colorado likewise trimmed the coverage of Abnormal Dryness (D0).
Conditions were largely mixed over the region during the 7-day monitoring period, with generally dry weather in the north contrasting with additional rain in southern portions of the region.
Moderate to heavy rainfall (1-4 inches, locally more) led to widespread reductions in Abnormal Dryness (D0) in central Missouri, with a report of 5.52 inches in Appleton City (north of El Dorado Springs).
Conversely, rain largely bypassed locales from northeastern Missouri into west-central Illinois, with D0 expanded to capture areas reporting half of normal rainfall over the past 60 days.
Despite the continuation of a generally active weather pattern, the Southwest will remain unfavorably dry.
In contrast, wetter-than-normal conditions are expected from the northern Great Basin into northern portions of the Rockies and Great Plains, with a second higher-likelihood area of above-normal rainfall over the southeastern quarter of the nation.

My how things have changed!
Drought hasn’t vanished completely, but we’re finally heading in the right direction.
It’s all the result of a weather pattern that’s been giving us levels of rain we haven’t seen since September of last year (you may remember we had a certain hurricane that month).
Average rainfall in the month of May is between 2.5 to 3.25 inches.
We are meeting or exceeding those numbers in just the past week.
That’s a lot of water!
In fact, many weather stations in Southwest Florida are in the top 10 for recorded rainfall for the past 7 days (May 13 – 19) according to the NOAA Southeast Regional Climate Center.
Southwest Florida has only cracked the top 25 of May record rain.
Moisture continues to funnel out of the tropics directly over Florida and is expected to do so until at least next weekend.
DeSoto County picked up the first flood warning of the season on Sunday.

As of May 1, drought conditions were rated 35 percent extreme to exceptional, up 35 points from the previous year, and 24 percent exceptional drought, up 24 points from the previous year.
Drought conditions were unchanged from last week; however, maps have not yet been updated to reflect rainfall received late in the week.
Statewide temperatures averaged in the high 60s.
There were 5.4 days suitable for fieldwork.
Winter wheat jointing reached 94 percent, down 4 points from the previous year and down 3 points from normal.
Canola blooming reached 81 percent, down 17 points from the previous year and down 14 points from normal.
Canola coloring reached 15 percent, down 32 points from the previous year and down 11 points from normal.
Oats headed reached 10 percent, down 36 points from the previous year and down 12 points from normal.
Corn planted reached 59 percent, down 2 points from the previous year and down 2 points from normal.
Soybeans planted reached 13 percent, down 1 point from the previous year but unchanged from normal.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor for April 17 released April 19, powerful spring storm emerged from the West and brought extreme conditions to several regions.
Meanwhile, dry, windy weather contributed to a major wildfire outbreak, starting on April 12, and led to blowing dust and further reductions in rangeland, pasture, and crop conditions.
Farther east, heavy showers and locally severe thunderstorms swept across portions of the southern and eastern U.S.
Elsewhere, unsettled, showery weather lingered in the Northwest, extending as far south as northern California.
In the High Plains, heavy snow blanketed portions of the northern Plains, while dry, windy weather dominated drought-affected areas of the central Plains.
The storm contributed to the elimination of severe drought (D2) from the Dakotas and brought substantial reductions in the coverage of abnormal dryness (D0) and moderate drought (D1).
In South Dakota, 2-day April snowfall records were broken on April 13-14 in Mitchell (16.2 inches) and Huron (15.5 inches), while peak gusts were clocked to 60 and 57 mph, respectively.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, received 14.5 inches of snow from April 13-15, and reported a gust to 67 mph on the 14th.
Most of Sioux Falls’ snow—13.7 inches—fell on the 14th, easily becoming the snowiest April day on record in that location (previously, 10.5 inches on April 28, 1994).
On the same date, winter wheat in Kansas was rated 46 percent very poor to poor.

The storm, which produced 1- to 3-inch rainfall totals in many areas, resulted in a reduction in the coverage of abnormal dryness (D0) and moderate drought (D1) in the northern Mid-Atlantic region.
For example, there was a slight increase in coverage of moderate and severe drought (D1 and D2) in southern Florida, while D2 persisted in many areas along and near the Atlantic Coast in Georgia and South Carolina.
South A sharp line between no drought and moderate to exceptional drought (D1 to D4) continued to slice across Oklahoma and Texas.
On April 15, topsoil moisture was rated 72% very short in Oklahoma, along with 66% in Texas.
Midwest A major, late-season storm dumped heavy snow across much of the northern half of the region, sharply reducing the coverage of abnormal dryness (D0).
In Wisconsin, April 13-16 storm-total snowfall included 24.2 inches in Green Bay and 20.7 inches in Wausau.
In both locations, it was the biggest April storm (previously, 11.0 inches in Green Bay on April 4-5, 1977, and 12.1 inches in Wausau on April 15-16, 1993) and the second-highest event total on record.
High Plains Heavy snow also blanketed portions of the northern Plains, while dry, windy weather dominated drought-affected areas of the central Plains.
A more significant storm will traverse the West and produce heavy snow in the central Rockies before crossing the Plains on Friday.
Precipitation totals associated with the storm will be variable, but some drought-stricken areas of the central and southern Plains could receive as much as 0.5 to 2.0 inches of rain.

In areas of existing dryness and drought, precipitation exceeded 1.5 inches only in southeastern Tennessee and adjacent areas, the southeastern tier of the dry area in Arkansas, the Sierra Nevada, and portions of southwestern California.
Southeast Light to moderate precipitation kept dryness and drought unchanged from last week, but some substantial changes were introduced farther west and south.
Moderate drought now covers two swaths, one across southern Alabama and central Georgia, and another from southeastern South Carolina southwestward through the eastern Florida Panhandle.
During the last 90 days, precipitation generally ranged from 3 to 6 inches below normal, with deficits approaching 8 inches in a few areas near the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, including the new D2 area in southeastern Georgia.
Small adjustments were made across southern and central Texas, but continued dryness with periods of strong winds and low humidity led to broad deterioration from the Texas Panhandle and northeastern New Mexico northeastward into the central Plains.
This resulted in broad D3 expansion across western sections of the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, and much of northeastern New Mexico.
Southern parts of the Plains (above central Texas) experienced another week with little or no precipitation, prompting large-scale deterioration across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, northeastern New Mexico, and central and western Kansas.
Much smaller areas of improvement were observed farther west, and in part of western South Dakota that missed most of the snowstorm, some slight D1 and D2 expansion was introduced.
Conditions were generally unchanged in Montana, though D0 was pulled out of a small area in the interior southeast of the state.
The Navajo Nation declared a drought emergency due to poor rangeland and reduced water stores.

As California suffers through another dry winter, increasing fears that drought conditions may be returning, the state’s residents are dropping conservation habits that were developed during the last drought and steadily increasing their water use with each passing month.
But in each of those eight months last year, the water savings dropped from 20 percent in May to 2.8 percent in an unseasonably dry December.
Many eased, or dropped entirely, their mandatory water restrictions, rebate programs and other incentives to conserve, because they wanted to make more money by selling more water, and in part because it was difficult to convince their customers of the urgency when the state had just seen its wettest winter in 20 years.
By December, the most recent month for which the State Water Resources Control Board has data, statewide water use was only down 2.8 percent, compared with December 2013, the baseline year that state water regulators use for monthly water conservation reports.
That happened after the 1976-77 drought, the 1987-92 drought and the 2007-2009 drought.
That year, in the most stark depths of the drought, snow levels ended at 5 percent of normal on April 1, an all-time record low that led Brown that day to travel to a grassy meadow at Echo Summit near Lake Tahoe that should have been under five feet of snow and declare the first statewide mandatory water restrictions in California history, with a target of reducing urban water use by 25 percent — a goal the state nearly met.
Ever since Brown declared the drought over, some parts of California have conserved more than others.
Cities around the Bay Area saved 15.5 percent, and cities on in the South Coast region, mostly Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County, saved the least, 11.7 percent.
The city continues to offer $125 rebates for people who buy low-flush toilets, along with paying $2 per square foot for people who remove lawns.
“All the programs are still in place.

The January 2018 Phoenix weather statistics by themselves aren’t particularly remarkable, but a look at the bigger picture will get your attention. January 2018 was the third warmest ever for Phoenix when you look at the average temperature of 61.2 degrees. Average daily temperature is determined by adding the daily highs and lows and dividing by two. And it was the 34th driest month for the city with just 0.21 inch of rain recorded at Sky Harbor Airport, according to the National Weather Service in Phoenix. When you consider that 2017 was the warmest year ever for Phoenix and the city had only 4.96 inches of rain (8.03 is normal), the January 2018 numbers take on additional significance. The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center calls for a 50 percent probability of above-normal temperatures and a 40-percent probability (50 percent in the southeastern corner of the state) of below-normal rain and snowfall for the next three months, so it’s easy to see why there could be cause for concern. Moderate to severe drought across Arizona The most recent map for Arizona from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that the entire state is experiencing…

January 2018 was the third warmest ever for Phoenix when you look at the average temperature of 61.2 degrees.
Parts of southeastern and east-central Arizona are in the extreme drought category.
I think drought is going to be a big story for Arizona this spring.” January highs and lows Three high-temperature records were set in Phoenix in January, according to National Weather Service statistics.
Phoenix had high temperatures of at least 80 degrees on the last four days of January.
January 2018 by the numbers The average high temperature for the month was 73.9 degrees.
The average daily temperature was 61.2 degrees, 4.8 degrees above normal and third on the all-time list.
The record is 62 degrees in 2003.
That’s fifth warmest in the category and 2.9 degrees above normal.
The record is 49.8 degrees in 1993.
Phoenix saw 0.21 inch of rain for the month.

Bottled water is flying off the shelves in Southland supermarkets as the drought takes a firm hold on water supplies. Countdown South Island operations manager Jo McNaught said the supermarket chain had seen an increased demand for bottled water throughout the country and sales have increased more than 18 per cent on last year, including high demand during the hot summer. “We continue to monitor water sales and work closely with our suppliers to ensure we have plenty of stock on hand over the coming weeks.” Foodstuffs media spokesperson Antoinette Laird said with the hotter weather the company has definitely seen a lift in sales of products like ice cream, ice…