The latest Drought Monitor, released this morning, shows that the sliver of moderate drought near Tampa has disappeared, but a new area of moderate (D1) drought has been introduced to eastern North Carolina, where conditions have slowly deteriorated over the last few weeks due to lack of rain and warm temperatures. Abnormally dry conditions expanded in southern Alabama and South Carolina this week despite some recent rain. There were no changes to the drought status in Puerto Rico. Severe drought continues to be a problem in parts of Tennessee as well. Next week looks like it will be fairly wet over a lot of the Southeast, so we may see some improvement in next week’s map.
