With a powerful early-season heat dome dominating in recent weeks, repeated rounds of hot conditions and a general lack of other weather have led the way to a speedy expansion of drought in the eastern United States.in the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Southeast, so weeks without much rain will drive up any precipitation deficits. The addition of peak summer sun and minimal cloud cover have also fueled speedy drying and browning of grasses, shrubs and trees.
There’s little sign the widespread month-to-date rainfall deficits of 2 to 4 inches will soon let up. In fact, after a brief respite that allowed for a few rounds of storms, the heat dome is likely to shift east again — and the Weather Service isThe change in drought conditions over recent weeks is stark. At the start of the month, only a few splotches east of the Mississippi River were characterized as abnormally dry by the Drought Monitor.
With part of the heat dome focused on the East Coast, stormy weather has mainly remained west and northwest of the Mississippi River Valley. On the flip side of drought in the east, there have beenMuch of the area where drought has expanded has seen less than 50 percent normal rainfall this month, often well less, with locations in Georgia and the Mid-Atlantic as low as single digits as a percent of normal. This translates to June totals that are 5.4 inches below normal in Valdosta, Ga.;, 3.