According to the September 3, 2024 U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), moderate to exceptional drought covers 25.2% of the United States including Puerto Rico, an increase from last week’s 23.4%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) decreased slightly from 2.0% last week to 1.9%.
A ridge of high pressure dominated most of the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) during this USDM week (August 28–September 3). Pacific weather systems moved in the jet-stream flow across the U.S.–Canadian border. One weather system sent a cold front plunging into the central CONUS in the middle of the week.
Meanwhile, a weather disturbance tarried over the western Gulf of Mexico, sending Gulf moisture into the western and central Gulf Coast states. The disturbance and cold front worked together to spread showers and thunderstorms across parts of the Great Plains, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic states.The disturbance and rain kept weekly temperatures cooler than normal across parts of Texas and New Mexico, but the ridge was responsible for a warmer-than-normal week over most of the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic Coast and much of the West. In addition, the ridge kept most of the West and central to northern Plains dry, and also worked against the front to inhibit precipitation over much of the Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast.
High-pressure ridges kept temperatures generally warmer than normal and precipitation mostly drier than normal over Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, while a low-pressure trough brought a mixed temperature anomaly pattern to Alaska that caused mostly drier-than-normal conditions, except for in the panhandle, which saw wetter-than-normal conditions. The dry and hot weather and worsening soil moisture and streamflow conditions resulted in continued expansion and intensification of drought and abnormal dryness from the Midwest to the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico states; expansion occurred in parts of the northern Rockies and central to northern Plains, and mounting moisture deficits and hot weather expanded drought in the Desert Southwest.
Beneficial precipitation this week contracted drought and abnormal dryness in Texas to Colorado, in Virginia, and in the Upper Midwest. Beneficial effects from last week’s rain resulted in contraction in Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. Nationally, expansion was much more than contraction, so the nationwide moderate to exceptional drought area percentage increased this week.
Abnormal dryness and drought are currently affecting over 136 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico—about 43.9% 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.
