The latest Drought Monitor, released this morning, shows that the entire region is now covered by abnormally dry conditions or drought. Significant parts of Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina have gotten worse while smaller areas of other states had increases in their areas of different drought categories. The only improvements seen in this map occurred along the east coast of Florida, where rains from a system in the Atlantic provided some relief there. The area of exceptional (D4) drought expanded from 7.8 to 8.6 percent of land area this week, with the increases all in Georgia. Since almost no significant rain is expected for the next week except in northwestern Alabama and Tennessee, it is likely that extreme and exceptional drought will increase again on next week’s map. By contrast, there are no dry conditions in Puerto Rico.
You can read more at https://www.drought.gov/drought-status-updates/drought-status-update-southeast-2026-04-16.
