A drought, which is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply, has in recent years been especially harsh in the desert southwest, including California, Nevada and Arizona; the inter-mountain west states of Utah and New Mexico; and the gulf states from Georgia to South Carolina.
As of January 26, The U.S. Drought Monitor, which measures drought on a scale from D0 (abnormally dry) to D4 (exceptionally dry), indicates that only 9.15% of the country is in moderate to exceptional drought. This is a 10-year record low percentage of drought in the United States since the Drought Monitor report began in 1999.
The Weather Channel says much of this drought alleviation can be attributed to the recent western storminess that provided days of heavy snow and excessive rains across the southwest. Arizona went from 88% of the state in severe or worse drought to just 15.7% in one week, while California plummeted from 63.2% to 19.4%.
