In a comprehensive statement Thursday, the Paducah office noted that the inch or so of rain received last week was on par for a typical May week, enough to prevent drought deterioration but not enough for much improvement.
In fact, the week's only improvement took place in small slivers of western Kentucky near the Ohio River in parts of McCracken, Marshall, Livingston, Crittenden, Lyon and Caldwell counties, along with parts of Massac and Pope counties in southern Illinois.
Our entire area is under some level of drought, from extreme (D3 on a scale of four) along the Kentucky-Tennessee border counties, to moderate or severe (D1/D2) for the rest of western Kentucky and southern Illinois.
Precipitation deficits continue to mount. Western Kentucky experienced their driest November-April on record with only 12.68”, which was 12.63” below normal, or about half the usual amount.
Cooler temperatures in May, around 5 degrees below normal so far this month have slowed the rate of moisture loss since the warmest April on record for many localities.
Rivers and streams in most our region are running below to well below normal, and farm pond levels are typically low. Limited agricultural impacts so far will likely increase rapidly if we don’t receive notable rainfall over the coming weeks, as subsoil and topsoil conditions remain quite poor.
We can pin our hopes for some local improvement on rain chances next week that could possibly bring one to two inches of precipitation.
The U.S. long-term outlook includes a signal for temperatures to average above normal through the next 3 months. Meanwhile, there isn’t a strong enough signal to sway precipitation chances to be anything more than average.
You can see the entire NWS Paducah drought statement here .
On the Net:
USDA drought monitor
