Louisiana Drought Deepens as State Enters Critical Spring Period

By Jay Grymes

Louisiana State Climatologist

When it comes to maps, colorful is NOT a good thing with the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM).

Unfortunately, that's exactly what we have as Louisiana heads into April. 

The LA Drought Team and the USDM national authors concur:  more than 80% of Louisiana is currently in drought with nearly 1/4th of the Pelican State in 'Extreme Drought' (D3).  For perspective, over the long term, D3 drought is expected to occur only 2% to 5% of the time ... rare indeed.

Much of the state is expecting 1" to 2" of rain over the next 7 days.  That will be most welcomed but will only take a nibble out of the drought for some of the state's drier parishes ... rather than a big bite. 

As we head into the April "warm-up and green-up", the environmental moisture demand starts to increase substantially: we are quickly approaching a point where the landscape (forests, pastures, even backyards) optimally would like to see about 1" of rain per week, on average.

Remember, we do not have to receive enough rain to make up for the accumulated rainfall deficits of the past 3-6 months, but if we hope to get deeper soil-moisture infiltration before the May-June summer heat, we need Mother Nature to get the sprinklers going ASAP.