Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Southeast and Caribbean Region for December 2025–February 2026. Dated March 2026.

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Southeast and Caribbean Region for September–November 2025. Dated December 2025. (Updated to add Spanish translation of Caribbean information.)

This report, Facing Future Droughts: Lessons from the Southeast’s 2023 Fall Flash Drought, was developed to improve the monitoring, communication, and response to drought in the Southeastern United States, with a specific focus on flash drought. The 2019 flash drought exposed critical gaps in early warning and monitoring systems, sparking conversations that continued during the 2022 Southeast Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) Regional Meeting.

Focusing on the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s (CPC) long-term Seasonal Drought Outlook, this William M. Lapenta NOAA student internship project aimed to address the complexities of communicating uncertainty and provide recommendations on improving communications to best support agricultural producers. This project focused on the process of communicating outlooks to the agricultural sector through the lens of agricultural intermediaries, such as agricultural extension staff and state climatologists.

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Southeast and Caribbean Region for June–August 2025. Dated September 2025. (Updated to add Spanish translation of Caribbean information.)

Given the broad interest and need to better understand and plan for ecological drought in the Southeast, the U.S. Geological Survey's Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), in support of the Southeast Drought Early Warning System, convened a 2-day workshop in January 2025. This workshop brought together scientists and managers from diverse fields, to address drought and low-flow in the Southeast and its impacts to aquatic systems across the region.

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Southeast and Caribbean Region for March–May 2025. Dated June 2025. (Updated to add Spanish translation of Caribbean information.)

Temperatures were above average across the Southeast, particularly across parts of North Carolina and Virginia, where many locations were 3–5°F above average for the season. Precipitation was above average across much of the Southeast, particularly across Alabama and portions of Georgia and South Carolina, where seasonal totals were more than 10 inches above average in places.

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Southeast and Caribbean Region for December 2024–February 2025. Dated March 2025. (Updated April 2025 to add Spanish translation of Caribbean information.)

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Southeast and Caribbean Region for September–November 2024. Dated December 2024.  (Updated January 2025 to add Spanish translation of Caribbean information.)