National Drought Worsens this Week

Chris Dolce Published: Nov 29, 2012, 0:07 PM EST weather.com

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CREDIT: NOAA/USDA/NDMC

National drought status as of November 27, 2012. Dark orange and red shaded locations are experiencing the worst drought conditions.

Overall, there is no good news to report in this week's update of the U.S. Drought Monitor. Conditions worsened in each category nationally over the previous week.
Moderate and severe drought coverage increased the most by 2.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively.
Note: There are five categories on the U.S. Drought Monitor in worsening intensity that range from abnormally dry to moderate, severe, extreme and exceptional drought status.
(MORE: Drought affecting Christmas tree prices?)
Below are some of the states that have seen the most significant changes since last week.

Significant Changes by State

Oklahoma: Extreme drought conditions (second worst category) increased from 72 percent to 91 percent since last week. This returns the amount of the state in extreme drought to near the levels we saw this past September. According to the drought report, winter wheat and pastures stood at 44 and 80 percent poor to very poor, respectively.
(MAPS: Weekly rainfall | Monthly rainfall)
Minnesota: Since last week, severe drought coverage has increased a whopping 40.3 percent. Drought conditions rated severe or worse now stands at 83.4 percent, which is the most widespread that Minnesota has seen since the drought began earlier this year.

 

North Carolina, South Carolina: Conditions continue to worsen in the Carolinas. Moderate drought expanded in North Carolina from 14.7 percent last week to 50.6 percent this week. South Carolina saw moderate drought expand from 49.4 percent to 76.1 percent this week. Severe drought in South Carolina jumped up from 6.7 percent last week to 16.4 percent this week. All of this being said, the latest drought monitor update does not include the possible benefits from some rainfall that fell earlier this week.
Texas: Moderate and severe drought conditions increased near 5 percent in each category since last week. The drought report listed that the winter wheat crop was rated 40 percent poor to very poor. Pastures have deteriorated from 43 percent poor to very poor in late October to 53 percent as of November 25.
Georgia: Moderate and severe drought coverage both increased more than 10 percent this week. Extreme drought nudged up a little more than 2 percent.
A few of the other states that have seen notable increases in at least one category of drought coverage since last week include: Virginia, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

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