While rainfall has improved conditions in the Northeast, some other parts of the country are facing the worst drought since the 1930s.
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00:00Here's a quick update here on your drought monitor. Now last week we saw some drought conditions
00:04getting worse here across the southern plains, especially parts of west Texas. But when you
00:08compare last week's drought monitor to this week's, you can see that we have seen some areas here
00:14across the Mississippi into the Midwest that have seen worsening drought conditions. Same thing
00:18across the southwest. The good news is if we've seen any drought conditions getting better, it's
00:23actually been across the northern Rockies. So last week, yes, we did see some worse drought conditions,
00:28but overall, last week compared to this week, we have two areas here across the Mississippi
00:32in the Midwest where we saw the drought conditions get worse. We also saw drought conditions get
00:37worse here across the southwest. And yes, there's that little area across the far northern Rockies
00:42that did see drought conditions improve. But overall, the worst drought continues to be
00:46across west Texas. Now this was the look at the drought last week. When you look at it this week,
00:51not much of a change, but if you look very closely, you can see that some areas here
00:55along the Rio Grande got worse. Also, some areas here across central Texas got worse.
01:00But overall here, to put this into context here, the numbers here for how bad the drought is across
01:05west Texas, Van Horn, Van Horn, Texas, so far this year in 2024, they have received 1.01 inches of
01:13total rainfall. That's it for the entire year. That has been the driest and the lowest amount
01:17since records have been kept back in 1939. So 85 years, that's how long, that's how dry it's been.
01:25It hasn't been this dry in Van Horn, Texas in 85 years. Across the northeast, we are still seeing
01:30some worsening drought conditions here across the coast. But overall, that little stretch across
01:34parts of West Virginia, that has improved slightly into the Ohio Valley. Across the northern plains,
01:40we are starting to see more drought across the Dakotas that we will be watching out for. So yes,
01:44we definitely need to get some rainfall here, especially across the northern plains.
01:48Stay right here with AccuWeather ahead. We'll have more updates right after this.