U.S. Drought Monitor Update for February 8, 2022

According to the February 8, 2022, U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 46.5% of the United States including Puerto Rico, a slight increase from last week’s 46.3%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) decreased from 10.2% last week to 9.5%. 

The upper-level circulation pattern during this USDM week saw the continuation of a very strong long-wave ridge/trough pattern across the contiguous United States (CONUS). The ridge axis was centered over the West Coast and produced a northwest flow into the central CONUS. This pattern deflected Pacific weather systems to the north into Canada, resulting in a very dry week for the western CONUS, northern to central Plains, and western Great Lakes. The weather systems plunged southward into the central CONUS then moved eastward, dragging cold Canadian air masses behind them. The cold fronts tapped into Gulf of Mexico moisture to spread above-normal precipitation across parts of the southern and eastern CONUS. 

One slow-moving frontal system during the first half of the week generated rain and snow from the southern Rockies, southern Plains, and central Gulf Coast, to the Ohio Valley, Appalachians, and Northeast. A frontal boundary helped generate locally heavy rains over Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Weekly temperatures were near to below normal across most of the CONUS. Drought expansion and intensification occurred in parts of the central Plains to Great Lakes and in a few parts of the Gulf of Mexico coast. Drought contracted or was reduced in intensity in the southern Plains, Colorado High Plains, Mid-Atlantic states, and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Overall, expansion slightly exceeded contraction, with the nationwide moderate to exceptional drought area inching upward this week.

Abnormal dryness and drought are currently affecting over 138 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico—about 44.5% of the population.