Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Great Lakes Region for March - May 2021. Dated June 2021.
Spring was up to 3°C (5°F) warmer than normal. Lake temperatures were also slightly above average this spring. All basins except Superior were drier than average every month of spring, with the overall basin seeing 68% of average precipitation in March, 81% of average in April, and 62% of average in May. Spring precipitation was 70% of average.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Gulf of Maine Region for March - May 2021. Dated June 2021.
Spring was up to 3°C (5°F) warmer than normal in the region. Spring precipitation ranged from 50% of normal to 150% of normal. Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the entire Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy were strongly above normal (greater than 2°C [4°F]) for the spring season. Anomalies were only slightly weaker around Cape Cod (around 1.5°C [3°F]) and over the Scotian Shelf (around 1.0°C [2°F]).
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Southeast Region for March - May 2021. Dated June 2021.
Above-average mean temperatures were recorded over parts of Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. Near-average mean temperatures were recorded over the rest of the Southeast. Precipitation ranged from below normal in the eastern Carolinas and southern Florida to above normal in Alabama.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Pacific Region for March - May 2021. Dated June 2021.
In April, the tropical Pacific transitioned from La Niña conditions to ENSO-neutral conditions with a 78% chance of ENSO-neutral conditions likely to continue through the Northern Hemisphere summer (June – August 2021).
The National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN) is a collaborative effort among federal agencies, soil moisture scientists, state mesonet operators, and others to plan for and support nationally-coordinated soil moisture monitoring, data assimilation, and product development. As a key milestone of this effort, and in direct response to the requirement in the NIDIS Reauthorization Act of 2018 (P.L.
This executive summary provides a brief overview of the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN) Strategy.
The development of the Southern Plains Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) was initiated in 2011 during a record-setting drought across the southern tier of the United States. From 2010–2015, drought persisted throughout parts of the region, impacting portions of Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. This drought cost several billion dollars and was considered a major disaster for the region. Today, the Southern Plains region continues to face challenges brought about by drought and other extreme weather events that significantly affect communities and local economies.
As of May 18, 2021, 93% of the Southwest and California was in drought, with 38% of this region in Exceptional (D4) Drought, the highest level. Twelve months prior, most of the West was drought-free, but drought conditions began developing around May 2020. High temperatures and very low rainfall totals through spring and summer of 2020 set new records across the Southwest, and the combination of extremely low soil moisture leading into winter and snow drought through winter means that run-off in the spring of 2021 has been very low.
NIDIS is a multi-agency partnership that coordinates drought monitoring, forecasting, planning, and information at national, state, and local levels across the country. In 2006, Congress passed the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Act of 2006, which directs NIDIS to develop and “provide a national drought early warning information system.”
In this EOS opinion article, NOAA Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) Program Drought Task Force leaders working with the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) describe the disastrous impacts of droughts, heat waves, and fires in the United States and the world. They also discuss new MAPP- and NIDIS-funded research that is tackling the challenges of a drier, hotter, more fire-prone future.