Sunday, January 11, 2015

From the US Drought Monitor

The US Drought Monitor: Very cold weather returned to the western and central U.S. in late December and early January, accompanied by light precipitation. From January 2-5, snow covered at least 50% of the contiguous U.S. By the afternoon of January 6, the NWS had issued wind chill advisories for Deep South Texas and along and east of a line from eastern Montana to the central Gulf Coast, excluding southern Florida.

...In California’s key watershed areas, mostly dry weather prevailed for a second consecutive week, following a highly beneficial, 3-week wet spell. By January 4, heavy precipitation briefly overspread non-drought areas of the Pacific Northwest, leading to melting snow, local flooding, and mudslides. Farther east, soaking rains returned across much of the South, erasing most of the lingering concerns about dryness and drought. Some of the heaviest rain, generally 2 to 4 inches or more, fell from eastern Texas to the southern Appalachians.

In contrast, Florida’s peninsula experienced an extended period of warm, mostly dry weather, although colder air arrived late in the drought-monitoring period. Elsewhere, mostly dry weather in the upper Midwest contrasted with periods of precipitation from the Ohio Valley into the Northeast.

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