National Climatic Data Center, 14 February 2002

U.S. Drought Highlights:

• On the national scale, severe drought affected about 18 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of January 2002
• Beneficial rain and snow fell over parts of the Pacific Northwest during the last four months, but much of the western U.S. continued to suffer from long-term moisture deficits and hydrological impacts of drought, with dryness intensifying over the Southwest
• Drought continued across much of the eastern seaboard and parts of the southern Plains
• Short-term dryness developed over parts of the North Central states

Contents Of This Report:

• National Overview
• Regional Drought Watch
• Palmer Drought Indices*
• Standardized Precipitation Index*
• Regional Precipitation Ranks*
• Statewide Precipitation Ranks*
• Weekly Drought Monitoring Tools*

  * From these pages, click on the
  Back button to return to this page.