National Climatic Data Center, 13 February 2004

U.S. Drought Highlights:

• On the national scale, severe to extreme drought affected about 18 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of January 2004
  • moderate to extreme drought affected about 28 percent of the contiguous U.S.
• January was drier than normal across a significant portion of the western and Great Plains drought areas
• The month was also dry from New England down much of the eastern seaboard
• January marked the fourth consecutive month with below-normal precipitation regionwide across the Southeast, where November 2003-January 2004 precipitation averaged less than 50 percent of normal in places
• 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*

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