National Drought Summary - June...

National Drought Summary -- June 4, 2002: "Hot, dry weather maintained severe to exceptional drought across the Southwest. Arizona, Colorado, California, New Mexico, and Utah reported very high to extreme fire indices as of June 4. Temperatures soaring into the 90s and 100s broke numerous records during the last two days of May. One to 2-inch rainfall amounts in northwestern North Dakota erased D0 dryness from the northwest corner of the state, but D0 dryness continued across most of the rest of the state and northwestern Minnesota as well. Heavy rains along the Gulf Coast eased drought, with thunderstorms causing a slight pullback of D2/D3 drought in South Texas and the removal of drought from the Houston area. The strong thunderstorms that hit the Northeast on May 31 caused D1 drought to retreat in Maine, Connecticut, southern New York and northwestern New Jersey, but D2 (severe drought) persisted from western Long Island through southern New Jersey into Maryland. The storms missed most of this region, where rainfall deficits since last September still exceed 10 inches. Monitoring wells in central Maryland are near record lows for this time of year. Rains in southeast Alaska resulted in the removal of D1 drought in the Panhandle, but lack of rain has contributed to high fire danger in central Alaska. D0 expanded northward into central Alaska. D0 dryness continued in western Molokai, Hawaii. Weather features to watch in the next 2 weeks that may affect areas experiencing dryness include: 1) rains likely to exceed 1 inch across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast states during June 5-9, with near normal temperatures; 2) above normal rainfall during June 11-15 across the East Coast; 3) abundant rains over the northern Plains during June 5-9, including Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Montana; 4) above-normal temperatures and little rainfall over the central Rockies and Southwest during the next 2 weeks."