January 282010
Progress made in Southwest Drought Conditions
To update everyone with the drought condition improvements we have seen in the Southwest due to the impressive rains last week, lets take a quick look at a few maps to show that progress…..
The first map is that of conditions as of January 12th, 2009. You can clearly see that most of California and Arizona were in a state of moderate to severe droughts conditions. Note also Northeast Arizona having “Extreme” conditions.
source: National Drought Mitigation Center
Then came the drop in the jet stream that brought storm after storm aimed directly at the Southwest. With Southern California and Northern Arizona receiving the brunt of the “Storm Train” on the week of January 17th, it was welcomed for drought relief! For drought relief you typically would like to see rain over a longer period as we did, but it helped.
Impressive precipitation percent of normal rain recorded form 1/13 to 1/26… (Click image for larger/clearer view)
source: Western Regional Climate Center
As of a results here’s the latest map showing a significant improvement in drought conditions, especially in California!
source: National Drought Mitigation Center
Looking ahead, El Nino is currently at a “moderate” level and as we typically see in El Nino years, a wet winter and into early spring is expected. Some resources show that we may see another storm window open up around the second week of February for some additional drought relief.