Despite being a humid region, droughts pose a serious threat to the southeastern United States. Recent events, including flash droughts, have caused substantial impacts to agriculture, forestry, water resources, and other sectors and stakeholders. The drought planning literature cites reduced fragmentation and increased coordination as critical needs to improving drought preparedness and response.
Produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE), the Climate and Health Outlook is an effort to inform health professionals and the public on how our health may be affected in the coming month(s) by climate events and provide resources to take proactive action. This Climate and Health Outlook provides, issued in October 2022, prospective forecasts for November 2022–January 2023, as well as a retrospective look at how heat and drought affected the U.S. in the summer of 2022.
The 2022–2026 National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Strategic Plan outlines and advances NIDIS’s approach to building a national drought early warning system (DEWS).
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for Alaska and Northwestern Canada for June–August 2022, with an outlook for October–December 2022. Dated September 2022.
The early part of the summer saw record dry conditions that led to numerous and extensive wildfires. The second half of the summer saw excessive rainfall in many parts of the state. Most Yukon watersheds saw record snowpack in this past winter. This was followed by a colder than average spring, which signaled increased potential for flooding during the spring snowmelt season.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Mid-Atlantic Region for June–August 2022. Dated September 2022.
Almost all of the watershed experienced temperatures within two degrees of normal, with most experiencing temperatures 0–2 degrees above normal. A few locations along the coast of Virginia, southern Maryland, central Pennsylvania, and southern New York experienced temperatures between 2 and 3 degrees above normal.
The Southwestern United States, comprising the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, is experiencing an historic, continuing drought. In early 2020, an extreme deficit in precipitation paired with extremely high temperatures marked a low point in two decades of below average precipitation across the region.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for June–August 2022. Dated September 2022.
Temperatures were above normal across the entire West with many long-term stations in the top five warmest summers on record. Most of the West saw near-normal or above-normal precipitation this summer.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Southern Region for June–August 2022. Dated September 2022.
Summer started off dry and hot across most of the Southern region and stayed that way until mid-August. Weather conditions shifted in August, as a persistent ridge of high pressure gave way to deep tropical air from the southeast.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Missouri River Basin for June–August 2022. Dated September 2022.
Temperatures were above normal for the majority of the Missouri River Basin, with the greatest departures in the western parts of Kansas and Nebraska. Precipitation was above normal in Colorado and parts of Wyoming due to the Southwest Monsoon, while other isolated pockets of near-normal precipitation were present in the basin. Much of Kansas and Nebraska were well below normal, resulting in the intensification of drought conditions in those states.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Midwest Region for June–August 2022. Dated September 2022.
Temperatures were 1–4°F above normal in the west and south during the summer, with the central portion of the region near normal. Summer precipitation was near normal to as much as 175% of normal east of the Mississippi River and as low as 50% of normal to the west.