National Climatic Data Center, 15 January 2004

U.S. Drought Highlights:

• On the national scale, severe to extreme drought affected about 17 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of December 2003
  • moderate to extreme drought affected about 31 percent of the contiguous U.S.
• For the second month in a row, near- to above-normal precipitation fell across much of the western drought areas during December
• Below-normal precipitation this month exacerbated drought conditions across much of the Southwest and southern Plains
• December was drier than normal across parts of the central and northern Great Plains drought area, and marked the second consecutive drier-than-normal month across much of the Southeast
• Long-term moisture deficits (last 6 to 24 months) persisted across parts of the Upper Midwest to southern Plains, and most of the West

Contents Of This Report:

• National Overview
• Regional Drought Watch
• Palmer Drought Indices*
• Standardized Precipitation Index*
• Regional Precipitation Ranks*
• Weekly Drought Monitoring Tools*
• State/Regional Moisture Status*

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