Latest Drought Outlook: Those Dreaded Words ‘Persist or Intensify’

NOAA

The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center released the latest drought outlook this week. This is a prediction of what lays ahead in the next three months, and the news for Texas isn’t great: for much of the state, the drought is expected to “persist or intensify.”

It was a different story this spring. In the March 15 outlook, the drought was predicted to improve. And that’s largely what it did. Back then, over twenty percent of the state was in “exceptional” drought, the worst stage. And over 40 percent was in the next worst stage, “extreme.” Today only nine percent of the state is at that level, and none of the state is in “exceptional” drought.

But the new report shows that for the summer, a lot of Texas, and much of the rest of the country, is likely to see ongoing drought conditions. Here’s hoping that the predicted arrival of El Nino in the fall will bring rain.