9/14/2023

A lack of significant precipitation throughout the majority of the climate region in the past week along with temperatures well above normal 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 the Texas Panhandle, Western Oklahoma, and Southern Louisiana. While areas of Texas and Oklahoma did receive small amounts of rain last week, temperatures in North-Central Texas were as much as 12 degrees above normal. Due to these conditions, one-class degradations were observed in Central, North-Central, and Southern Oklahoma. While these states experienced more milder temperatures last week, below average precipitation in Mississippi, and Central Arkansas led to widespread one class degradations in the two states. This has led to an area of D4 (exception drought) expanding into southern Mississippi.

Looking into the future, as outlined by the Weather Prediction Center's 7-Day Total Precipitation Outlook, high rainfall totals are in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, leaving some areas of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi dry. Due to continued dry conditions in Arkansas and Mississippi drought is expected to worsen.