04/04/2025

Warm and wet conditions dominated the Southern Region last week. In the latter half of the week, a low-pressure system disturbed the atmosphere and produced plenty of rainfall in South Texas, south and east Tennessee, and southern Louisiana. 

Isolated storms brought heavy rainfall to several counties in North Texas and southern Oklahoma. Most of these areas saw drought improvements due to periodic and heavy rain. Consistent rainfall over two weeks helped to ameliorate the drought conditions in southern Tennessee. The deep south Texas saw rainfall totals up to 18 inches, which led to flooding and loss of life. Combined with cooler-than-normal temperatures, this area felt a rapid improvement in drought conditions within just one week. However, the same area still experiences (D1) Moderate Drought and (D0) Abnormally Dry conditions. 

Last week was not all good news for the Southern Region. Most of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee remained relatively dry. Many counties within these states also saw temperatures well above normal; even reaching 13 degrees more than the average temperature from the 1990-2020 period! As a result, a large swath of west-central Texas and several counties in Mississippi felt drought degradations by one class.