How is Alabama doing for rain so far this summer?
Hot temperatures and drier-than-average conditions are causing places in Alabama to creep toward drought.
Above is the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Released each Thursday, the report takes a look at drought conditions nationwide.
Last Thursday’s report shows a big jump in areas that are on the verge of drought, or abnormally dry, increasing from 25.95 percent June 18 to 68.25 percent on June 25.
A few spots are even drier than that. Small areas in central and southeast Alabama have been upgraded to Level D1, or moderate drought.
Places that are around average for rainfall are in southwest, east-central and a small spot in north-central Alabama.
Alabama has gotten its fair share of typical summertime afternoon showers and storms in the past few days, but the upcoming week is expected to be on the drier side in many areas, which could only worsen drought conditions.
The month of June was drier than average overall for many places.
In fact, in an unofficial survey around the state, Anniston was the only city surveyed that actually was above average for rainfall in June — at least as of June 29.
Here is a look at rainfall totals for several cities as of June 29. Note that Sunday’s rain will change the final totals for the month:
* Anniston: 4.81 inches (normal is 4.22)
* Birmingham: 1.91 inches (normal is 4.61)
* Cullman: 1.30 inches (normal is 1.87)
* Gadsden: 2.31 inches (normal is 4.39)
* Huntsville: 2.65 inches (normal is 3.90)
* Mobile: 4.16 inches (average is 6.32)
* Montgomery: 2.41 inches (normal is 3.92)
* Muscle Shoals: 2.27 inches (average is 4.87)
* Selma: 1.89 inches (normal is 4.32)
* Troy: 1.77 inches (normal is 4.74)
* Tuscaloosa: 4.11 inches (normal is 4.50)
The official rainfall totals for June will be available on Monday.
Could Alabama get a chance to catch up in the coming weeks?
There’s a chance. The long-range outlooks from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center all show some chance for above-average rainfall over the next few weeks. Of course, that’s better than high probabilities of below-average rain amounts.
Here’s a look at the CPC rainfall outlooks:
Six- to 10-day outlook:
All of Alabama has a 33-40 percent probability of getting above-average rainfall from July 6-10.CPC
Eight- to 14-day outlook:
A 33-40 percent probability of above-average rainfall is also expected from July 8-14.CPC
Experimental Weeks 3 and 4 outlook:
All but the northwest part of Alabama could have a 33-40 percent probability of above-average rain from July 13-26.CPC