9/07/2023

More dry conditions throughout the majority of the climate region in the past week have led to worsening drought conditions across several states. Although some evening pop-up showers allowed some areas to receive much-needed rain, leading to scattered one-class improvements in Texas and Louisiana. While temperatures were more seasonable last week, every state in the climate region experienced some level of below-normal precipitation. Due to these conditions, widespread one-class degradations were observed across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi, with even some degradation observed in Arkansas. This has now produced a solid region of D3-D4 (extreme to exceptional drought) from Central Texas through Louisiana, into Central Mississippi.

Looking into the future, as outlined by the Climate Prediction Center's Day 6-10 Precipitation Outlook, the majority of the climate region is forecasted to see above-normal precipitation amounts as an upper-level pattern shift is expected. Along with that, in the 6-10 day Temperature outlook, the northern half of the climate region is forecasted to have below-normal temperatures. The combination of both of these factors should keep drought from worsening, if not leading to improvement in some areas.