The latest Drought Monitor, released today, shows that drought continues to expand and get worse across most of the region. There were a few slight improvements in Alabama, South Carolina, and Virginia, but in the other states the drought got quite a bit worse. The biggest improvement was in western Tennessee, which saw significant rain across that part of the region. The State of Florida is now more than 2/3 covered by extreme (D3) drought and since it is the dry season, there is no real relief in sight any time soon. Drought completely covers Georgia and South Carolina and almost all of North Carolina and Florida, with just small slivers of abnormally dry conditions there. Virginia and Alabama as well as Tennessee are in somewhat better shape with more recent rains. Puerto Rico is almost free of abnormally dry conditions, with just a small area remaining. The seasonal outlook also released today shows that drought is expected to cover most of the Southeast for the next three months, a concern for farmers, foresters, and livestock producers.
