October’s peak in our nation’s drought coverage has eroded over the past five weeks due to heavy rain and snow totals in several parts of the country.

Participants: Rod Bain and USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey

Transcript

A stormy November over much of the country created significant reductions in U.S. drought coverage over the course of that month.

USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey explains.

October 29th, the U.S. Drought Monitor, we saw a drought coverage in the United States a little over 54 percent.

And that was the highest U.S. drought coverage in about two years, going all the way back to December of 2022.

Moving forward about five weeks to December 3rd, we've seen that drought coverage come down more than 10 percentage points.

We currently stand at a U.S. drought coverage of 43.64 percent.

So heading in the right direction.

Most notable improvements by region included the Pacific Northwest, Central and Southern Great Plains, Midwest, and parts of the Mid-South.

Some areas of deterioration, however, have been recorded over the past month in the Deep South, parts of the Northern Plains, and Mid-Atlantic.

I'm Rod Bain reporting for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.