The values were 100% for New Jersey, 78% for Maryland, and 52% for New York. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 80% of the topsoil moisture in Pennsylvania was rated short or very short (dry or very dry), an increase of 48% from last week. Large 90-day precipitation deficits prompted expansion of D1 (moderate drought) in Maryland and eastern Pennsylvania. With soils drying, low streamflow, and very low precipitation for the month of May, D0 (abnormal dryness) was expanded across much of the region, from Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia to southern New York, and from western Maine to western Massachusetts. Temperatures averaged near to below normal. But most of the region received less than a fourth of an inch, and the rain that fell was mostly below normal. Some rain fell across the far southern parts of the Northeast region and in northern New England this week. Drought or abnormal dryness contracted across the Florida peninsula, across large areas in the western Great Plains, and in northwest Puerto Rico. Abnormal dryness or drought spread across a large part of the Midwest and Northeast, and in parts of the Pacific Northwest, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. Weekly temperatures averaged cooler than normal from the southern Plains to East Coast, but they were warmer than normal across the northern Plains and northern parts of the West. The exception to this was the Southeast, where the cutoff low pulled in Gulf and Atlantic moisture to spread above-normal precipitation across much of Florida and the Carolinas to Appalachians. The ridge inhibited precipitation, so a large part of the country from the Mississippi River to the Northeast received little to no precipitation. Several inches of rain fell with some of these thunderstorms, resulting in localized flooding. The moisture fed thunderstorms and weather complexes that developed along the stalled-out fronts and dry lines, resulting in above-normal precipitation across western portions of the Great Plains from Texas to Montana. This flow funneled Gulf of Mexico moisture across the Plains. A southerly flow over the Plains was created between the western trough and eastern ridge. The northwesterly flow associated with the trough inhibited precipitation across parts of the West, so the week was wetter than normal only from the Great Basin to northern Rockies. Pacific weather systems moved across the West, but their fronts stalled out when they ran into the ridge over the Plains.

This pattern resulted in targeted areas of precipitation, some of it heavy, while large parts of the CONUS received little to no precipitation. Drought Monitor (USDM) week (May 24-30) was dominated by three features: a trough over the West, a ridge that extended from the southern Plains to the Great Lakes, and a cutoff low over the Southeast. The upper-level circulation over the contiguous U.S.

Kansas city weather april 2021