According to the July 30, 2024 U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 16.9% of the United States including Puerto Rico, a slight decrease from last week’s 17.0%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) stayed about the same as last week’s 1.2%.
The upper-level circulation pattern over North America during this U.S. Drought Monitor week (July 24–30) was complicated. A ridge of high pressure stretched across most of the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) while the main storm track sent Pacific weather systems across the northern states and southern Canada. But a trough of low pressure dominated the weather along the west coast of Canada and into the U.S. Pacific Northwest, while another trough punched into the ridge from the Midwest to the Lower Mississippi Valley.
As Pacific weather systems moved through the storm track along the northern border, high-pressure ridges propagated eastward in between them. The two troughs sent cold fronts into the Pacific Northwest and across the eastern half of the CONUS. Cooler-than-normal weekly temperatures and above-normal precipitation occurred with the troughs and fronts in the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Great Basin, in the Mid-Mississippi Valley, and from the Texas Gulf coast to the Mid-Atlantic coast. The week was generally warmer and drier than normal over the Southwest and in the central to northern Plains due to high-pressure ridging. Other parts of the West and Midwest, and large parts of the Great Plains and Northeast, were also drier than normal.
Drought or abnormal dryness contracted where heavier rain fell in parts of Texas and across much of the Lower Mississippi Valley to the southern Appalachians and the Carolina coast. But the continued dryness and heat expanded or intensified drought or abnormal dryness across parts of the West, Plains, Midwest, and Northeast.
Nationally, contraction was almost balanced by expansion, with the nationwide moderate to exceptional drought area percentage slightly decreasing this week. Abnormal dryness and drought are currently affecting over 119 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico—about 38.3% of the population.
The full U.S. Drought Monitor weekly update is available from Drought.gov.
In addition to Drought.gov, you can find further information on the current drought on this week’s Drought Monitor update at the National Drought Mitigation Center.
The most recent U.S. Drought Outlook is available from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s World Agriculture Outlook Board also provides information about the drought’s influence on crops and livestock.
For additional drought information, follow #DroughtMonitor on Facebook and X.
