Your drought conditions update across the US

While rainfall has improved conditions in the Northeast, some other parts of the country are facing the worst drought since the 1930s.

Transcript

00:00Here's a quick update here on your drought monitor. Now last week we saw some drought conditions

00:04getting worse here across the southern plains, especially parts of west Texas. But when you

00:08compare last week's drought monitor to this week's, you can see that we have seen some areas here

00:14across the Mississippi into the Midwest that have seen worsening drought conditions. Same thing

00:18across the southwest. The good news is if we've seen any drought conditions getting better, it's

00:23actually been across the northern Rockies. So last week, yes, we did see some worse drought conditions,

00:28but overall, last week compared to this week, we have two areas here across the Mississippi

00:32in the Midwest where we saw the drought conditions get worse. We also saw drought conditions get

00:37worse here across the southwest. And yes, there's that little area across the far northern Rockies

00:42that did see drought conditions improve. But overall, the worst drought continues to be

00:46across west Texas. Now this was the look at the drought last week. When you look at it this week,

00:51not much of a change, but if you look very closely, you can see that some areas here

00:55along the Rio Grande got worse. Also, some areas here across central Texas got worse.

01:00But overall here, to put this into context here, the numbers here for how bad the drought is across

01:05west Texas, Van Horn, Van Horn, Texas, so far this year in 2024, they have received 1.01 inches of

01:13total rainfall. That's it for the entire year. That has been the driest and the lowest amount

01:17since records have been kept back in 1939. So 85 years, that's how long, that's how dry it's been.

01:25It hasn't been this dry in Van Horn, Texas in 85 years. Across the northeast, we are still seeing

01:30some worsening drought conditions here across the coast. But overall, that little stretch across

01:34parts of West Virginia, that has improved slightly into the Ohio Valley. Across the northern plains,

01:40we are starting to see more drought across the Dakotas that we will be watching out for. So yes,

01:44we definitely need to get some rainfall here, especially across the northern plains.

01:48Stay right here with AccuWeather ahead. We'll have more updates right after this.