Drought Improvement
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 6:44 am
HOT DAWG........I've gone from Expectional drought conditions to Severe Drought 
The drought for all intents and purposes is FAR from over, however, it's improving and the short term index has us at 150% above normal on snowpack/watershed!
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/e ... sment.html
Latest Seasonal Assessment - The latest seasonal drought outlook calls for generally improving conditions across the Southwest and much of the central Great Basin, while prospects for relief diminish farther north. Drought will tend to persist from southeastern Oregon eastward through southern Idaho, across Montana and into the western Dakotas, western Nebraska, and northeastern Wyoming. Limited improvement is expected in a transition band between the two areas. Although many large reservoirs continue to be well below normal, or even near record lows, heavy autumn rain and snow has boosted snowpack, soil moisture, and streamflows in large parts of the West. In particular, three consecutive months of above-normal precipitation from September to November benefited the Southwest, with Utah reporting record early-season snowpack by early November. In mid-December, the water content of the mountain snowpack still totaled over 150 percent of normal from California's Sierra Nevada into Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. In contrast, snowpacks have fallen below average in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies. The medium-range forecasts indicate a trend toward drier weather during the last half of December for the West, but the seasonal outlook for January through March shows a tilt of the odds toward a return to above-normal precipitation in the Southwest. This outlook, along with current abundant snowpack, implies general drought improvement across the Southwest and central Great Basin.
Dennis
The drought for all intents and purposes is FAR from over, however, it's improving and the short term index has us at 150% above normal on snowpack/watershed!
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/e ... sment.html
Latest Seasonal Assessment - The latest seasonal drought outlook calls for generally improving conditions across the Southwest and much of the central Great Basin, while prospects for relief diminish farther north. Drought will tend to persist from southeastern Oregon eastward through southern Idaho, across Montana and into the western Dakotas, western Nebraska, and northeastern Wyoming. Limited improvement is expected in a transition band between the two areas. Although many large reservoirs continue to be well below normal, or even near record lows, heavy autumn rain and snow has boosted snowpack, soil moisture, and streamflows in large parts of the West. In particular, three consecutive months of above-normal precipitation from September to November benefited the Southwest, with Utah reporting record early-season snowpack by early November. In mid-December, the water content of the mountain snowpack still totaled over 150 percent of normal from California's Sierra Nevada into Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. In contrast, snowpacks have fallen below average in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies. The medium-range forecasts indicate a trend toward drier weather during the last half of December for the West, but the seasonal outlook for January through March shows a tilt of the odds toward a return to above-normal precipitation in the Southwest. This outlook, along with current abundant snowpack, implies general drought improvement across the Southwest and central Great Basin.
Dennis