The drought is canceled. 

With 6.43” of rain in Lynchburg so far in May (Danville = 5.14”, Roanoke = 4.39”, any lingering drought concerns have been eliminated across the state. For the calendar year, Lynchburg has now received 16.80” of rain… which is 103% of normal. There are still some dry pockets across Pennsylvania and the Carolinas, but overall, the areas east of the Mississippi River are in good hydrological shape as we turn the corner toward meteorological summer (June, July, August).

The last calendar month that was this wet was July 2007, with 7.19” of rain.

 Above: U.S. Drought Monitor. Courtesy University of Nebraska 

The extreme drought in central and southern Florida will ease dramatically over the next 3 days, as a large area of low pressure has stalled across the Peninsula, and ironically, will probably lead to small scale flooding there before the end of the week.

The Florida system will then begin to drift westward into the Gulf of Mexico, and while the tropical cyclone season is still early (technically, it does not begin until June 1), the water temperatures are between 78 and 82 degrees in the northern Gulf of Mexico… which is enough to support modest development of a tropical cyclone. If development were to occur, the storm would take on the name: Tropical Storm Ana.

 
Above: Water Temperatures (in degrees Celsius) on May 17, 2009, courtesy NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab.

Sean Sublette

ABC 13 Meteorologist