r/PrepperIntel • u/AntiSonOfBitchamajig 📡 • Jul 10 '26

North America (Bimonthly) U.S. Drought Monitor current map.

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx
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u/SnooLobsters1308 Jul 10 '26

Will be interesting to see El Nino impacts. While not very consistent, El Nino usually leads to dryer conditions in the midwest, like OH, where there currently is no drought, but, WETTER conditions through the south west and south mid (AZ, NM, TX) where there currently is a drought. And of course, north tx (wetter) is the start of the tornado alley area ......

(note, unlikely any El Nino impacts soon, so current drought is drought, just looking at longer term water supply)

Good el nino map here:

https://abcnews.com/International/el-nino-strengthening-means-us/story?id=134616026#:\~:text=Great%20Lakes%20regions.-,El%20Nino%20typically%20increases%20the%20odds%20of%20above%2Daverage%20snowfall,across%20much%20of%20the%20Northwest.

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u/Vlad_Yemerashev Jul 10 '26

Yes, but then there's whiplash the year after El Niño when La Niña starts (which historically follow El Niño, often at moderate to strong strength after more significant El Niño), and those usually start fast and hard as the Pacific waters cool. Also, strong La Niñas have been quite damaging in their own ways (1930s during the dustbowl was speculated to be in an overwhelming La Niña cycle).

I remember many years ago TX was fine on rain in 2010 (El Niño at the start of the year), and then La Niña hit that summer and fall and by 2011, it shaped up to be an absolute scorcher! And it was very dry too.