The latest Drought Monitor map, released today, shows that drought has significantly expanded throughout the Southeast region in the last week due to a continuation of completely dry conditions and warmer-than-normal temperatures. I am receiving many comments about how dry it has been and how streamflows and farm ponds are down to almost nothing. Cattle farmers have been feeding hay and culling their herds to provide for the ones they have left. The only exception to this trend has been in Puerto Rico, which continues to improve and now shows only a small area of drought. The next week should bring more rain to most of the Southeast, but amounts will generally be an inch or less, and none at all is expected to fall in northern or central Florida with the exception of the western Panhandle. This may slow the expansion of drought in next week’s map but it would not surprise me if some additional degradation occurs. The longer-range forecast does show a likely shift in the storm pattern later in November to look more like a typical El Nino pattern, but it will probably not occur until the third week of November and could be even later in southern areas.