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In spite of the November wetness, long-term moisture deficits (last 6 to 24 months) persisted across parts of the Great Lakes to central and northern Plains, and most of the West. In the three-month timeframe, the Southeast and West experienced drier-than-normal conditions and September-November was especially dry in the central Plains.

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Some regional highlights:

• End-of-November reservoir storage for all of the reporting western states averaged below the long-term mean percent of capacity for this time of year.
• The percent area of the western U.S. (Rockies westward) experiencing moderate to extreme drought (as defined by the Palmer Drought Index) decreased during November to about 71%, which is still near record historical levels.
• Several weather systems brought substantial snowfall to parts of the West and northern Plains. Although the valley airport stations did not reflect this moisture, the high elevation mountain SNOTEL stations indicated both above-average precipitation and snow water content in parts of the Pacific Northwest and northern and central Rockies.
• The November wetness was a welcome change, but significantly more precipitation is needed to bring about a full recovery from the drought. Considerable dryness was still evident in western reservoir levels, modeled soil moisture across the West, Great Plains, and Midwest (both surface and deeper layers), streamflow runoff (both modeled and measured), long-term precipitation percentiles, and drought indices such as the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index and 6-month to 24-month Standardized Precipitation Index.

• Palmer Drought Indices,
• Standardized Precipitation Index,
• airport station percent of normal precipitation maps,
• statewide precipitation rank maps,
• Cooperative station percent of normal precipitation maps,
• satellite-based observations of vegetative health,
• satellite-based observations of surface moisture,
• National Weather Service model calculations of
  • soil moisture,
  • runoff,
  • evaporation,
• Midwest Regional Climate Center model calculations of soil moisture,
• percent of average maps for the SNOTEL stations in the western mountains provided by the Western Regional Climate Center
  • hydrologic year precipitation,
  • snow water equivalent of snowpack,
• streamflow maps maintained by the USGS.

A detailed review of drought conditions is available for the following regions and states:

• Southwest region
• Northwest region
• West region
• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Idaho
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• Oregon
• Utah
• Wyoming
• West North Central region
• East North Central region
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Minnesota
• Nebraska
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• South Dakota
• Wisconsin
• Florida
• South Carolina
• Columbia River Basin paleoclimatic perspective

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For additional information on current and past wildfire seasons please see the National Interagency Fire Center web site or the U.S. Forest Service Fire and Aviation web site.

NCDC's Drought Recovery Page shows the precipitation required to end or ameliorate droughts and the probability of receiving the required precipitation.

Additional climate monitoring graphics can be found at the Climate Prediction Center's monitoring pages:

• Weekly, Monthly, 3-Month, 12-Month Monitoring
• El Nino, Drought, Snow Cover, and Degree Day Monitoring
• Weekly Drought Monitoring
• Soil Moisture Monitoring

Precipitation and modeled soil moisture anomaly maps for the Midwest U.S. can be found at the Midwest Regional Climate Center's monitoring page.

Drought conditions on the Canadian prairies can be found at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Drought Watch page.