As of late April 2013, drought has been wiped out of the Ohio and mid-Mississippi Valleys, Alabama and most of Georgia. Drought improvement has also been noted in parts of the Plains and Rockies.
Above: These maps show drought status over the Lower 48 States. Click the Previous and Nextbuttons to see how drought conditions have changed.
We've had a series of winter storms produce heavy snow in parts of the Rockies and Upper Midwest. In some locations, this snow set April records.
The Latest on the Drought
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Then, flooding rainfall inundated parts of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys. Not exactly the kind of "drought relief" you'd like.
So, what, if any, impact has this recent heavy precipitation had on the massive drought spanning from the nation's heartland to the West?
As you can see in the interactive graphic above, a large swath of the nation remains in drought from the Upper Midwest and Plains to Southern California. A swath of central Florida has also slipped into drought. Overall, 47% of the contiguous U.S. remains in drought.
There has been improvement, though.
Overall, the percentage of the contiguous U.S. in drought has diminished from just over 65% in late September 2012 (see third map of interactive graphic above).
Furthermore, the area in the most dire drought, shaded in dark brown in the maps above, has diminished markedly from early February (see second map in the interactive graphic above). Parts of western Nebraska to Deep South Texas remain in "exceptional" drought, as of late April.
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