Monsoons Help U.S. Drought

The extreme drought in parts of the United States is being helped from an improbable source. It is what the U.S. Drought Monitor calls “monsoons.”

According to the experts from the organization:

Over the last seven-day period, an active pattern has helped to bring precipitation over several of the drought regions in the country. As the monsoon season continues and has been aided by tropical moisture coming up the Gulf of California, portions of the Southwest continue to see significant moisture. Areas in and around the Phoenix metro area recorded up to 6 inches of rain on the morning of September 8. Substantial flooding took place in many parts of the area. Several days of rain and thunderstorms helped to bring some relief over the southern Plains where August was especially dry. In the Texas panhandle, central Oklahoma, and eastern Kansas, 1.5-3.0 inches of rain was recorded this week.

Measures from the organization show that parts of Oklahoma suffer from “exceptional drought,” the Drought Monitor’s worst level. Other areas of the state have “extreme drought,” the second worst measure. Sections of the Texas panhandle have similar problems. In terms of recent improvement:

The western portions of the region saw above-normal precipitation this week, upwards of 200-300 percent of normal in the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. Farther east, the precipitation diminished. Temperatures were below normal in those areas that recorded the most rain, but generally the region was 2-4 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Many improvements were made this week, especially in west Texas and the Texas panhandle, where a full category improvement was observed.

Parts of eastern Kansas are not much better off in terms of lack of rain. Much of this part of the state is measured as suffering “extreme drought.” The areas around Phoenix are marked by the same problems.

If the monsoon season continues, as the Drought Monitor forecasts, the hardest hit area — California — may well not benefit. As for the worst of the rest of the United States, ongoing relief seems at least fairly likely.

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