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Rains bring some relief to Southwest
Weather-watchers say recent rains in parts of the Southwest—as much as 4 inches in parts of Oklahoma—are a step toward breaking the severe drought that has devastated crops and pastures in those states.
But they add there’s still a long ways to go before the drought is broken.
Meanwhile, Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center, says the Southwestern drought could mean less moisture flowing into the Midwest this summer.
“With a dry source region like the Southwest now, that is where the flow for moisture comes into the rest of the corn belt and bean belt as we get into June and July. That’s a dry-source region and unless we break that drought that’s one less area we can tap moisture from come summer,” Svoboda says.
Oklahoma officials say last week’s rains could be beneficial to wheat still in the grain development stage. But, in many cases, the rains came too late to help the crop.
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