This was a week of haves and have-nots for soil moisture in the Southeast. An area of very heavy rain (6-10 inches in some areas) in southeastern GA and adjacent parts of SC removed drought from that portion of the region. The rest of the region experienced almost no rain and as a result, moderate drought (D1) expanded to cover a lot of the rest of the region. In Alabama some pockets of extreme (D3) drought were introduced. We expect the drought in eastern NC and Virginia to be reduced in next week’s map due to the rain that is currently occurring there after the cutoff time for the map published today. Dry conditions should continue through most of the rest of the region until around November 19 or 20, when the remains of Tropical Storm Sara (see related post today) move east and bring some rain to parts of Florida and potentially SE Georgia. Most of the rest of AL and GA will not see much rain in the next 2-3 weeks, although more will fall in northern parts of the region due to frontal precipitation. No dry conditions are currently reported in Puerto Rico.
