45%+ Of Lower 48 Now In Drought; NOAA - Winter Forecast Not Promising At This Point

[hatrack]

Nearly half of the continental United States is gripped by drought, government forecasters said Thursday, and conditions are expected to worsen this winter across much of the Southwest and South.

Mike Halpert, deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said a lack of late-summer rain in the Southwest had expanded “extreme and exceptional” dry conditions from West Texas into Colorado and Utah, “with significant drought also prevailing westward through Nevada, Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.”

Much of the Western half of the country is now experiencing drought conditions and parts of the Ohio Valley and the Northeast are as well, Mr. Halpert said during a teleconference announcing NOAA’s weather outlook for this winter. This is the most widespread drought in the continental United States since 2013, he said, covering more than 45 percent of the Lower 48 states.

“The winter forecast doesn’t bode well,” Mr. Halpert added. Warmer and drier conditions are expected across the South and Southwest and drought is likely to develop in parts of Georgia and Florida and in Central and Southern California, where the dry conditions could add to the risk of wildfire in what has already been a catastrophic year for fires in California.

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/climate/noaa-climate-call-drought.html

[beachbumbob]

1. here in my area of Illinois we have had 1in of rain now going on 15 weeks

unheard of and our lake drinking water supply is now getting low to the point that people have to get there boats out before they are sitting in mud.

[NickB79]

2. We just got a good soaking earlier this week in the Twin Cities, MN

The first real rain in a month. It was a godsend; I was running sprinklers on some new prairie restoration and permaculture plantings almost daily. Soil moisture is just as important in fall as in the summer, because that's when perennials are sending down deep roots and preparing for winter.