Wunderground.com - 1/18/13, Dr. Jeff Masters
Rain and snow from the a series of winter storms that have swept across the nation so far in 2013 have put only a slight dent in the Great Drought of 2012 - 2013, and the drought is likely to extend at least until late April, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report and NOAA Seasonal Drought Outlook, issued Thursday. The area of the contiguous U.S. covered by moderate or greater drought began 2013 at 61%, and is almost unchanged as of January 15, at 59%. According to NOAA's monthly State of the Drought report, the drought peaked during July 2012, when 61.8% of the contiguous U.S. was covered by moderate or greater drought. This made the 2012 drought the greatest U.S. drought since the Dust Bowl year of 1939, when 62.1% of the U.S. was in drought. The 2013 drought will maintain its grip over the U.S. into February, according to the latest 15-day precipitation forecast from the GFS model, which predicts a much below-average chance of precipitation across the large majority of the drought region during the next two weeks.
These dry conditions will continue to cause problems for shipping on the Mississippi River, where barge traffic has been limited by near-record low water. However, the river level at St. Louis has risen about a foot since the beginning of the year, and the Army Corps of Engineers blasted away rock formations on the river bottom near Thebes, Illinois over the past two weeks, which should allow limited barge traffic to continue on the river at least through the end of January. The Corps now believes that will be able to keep shipping on the Mississippi River open into the summer. The latest NOAA river level forecast calls for the river to fall below -5' by January 30, which would be one of the five lowest water levels on record for St. Louis.
Figure 1. Predicted 7-day precipitation for the period ending on Friday, January 25. Less than 10% of the U.S. drought regions are predicted to receive as much as 0.5" of precipitation (dark green color.) Image credit: NOAA.
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