According to the February 26, 2019, U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 10.7% of the United States, a decrease from last week’s 13.1%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) decreased from 1.1% last week to 0.5%.
Pacific weather systems continued pouring into the western U.S., bringing above-normal rain and snow to parts of the Southwest, Pacific Northwest, northern Rockies, and northern California. The weather systems congregated across the West, within and amplifying an upper-level trough that kept cooler-than-normal air across the West, Great Plains, and western Great Lakes.
The surface low-pressure systems tracked across the central Plains to Great Lakes, laying down a persistent snow cover across these regions; their associated fronts and secondary lows hammered the Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys to southern Appalachians with heavy flooding rain and severe weather. The western trough was bracketed by upper-level ridges along the East Coast and in Alaska, with the ridge keeping temperatures warmer than normal across the Southeast.
Read more at NOAA
Image via Drought.gov