Still In a Drought, but Getting Better

The last few weeks have been good for the El Paso area. The recent rains have greened up the city, put smiles on many of our faces and provided a lot of free water to area farmers being hurt by the drought.
July is normally our second wettest month of the year, followed by August. We have already received just over three inches of rain at the El Paso International airport for July. I only pray we can continue this latest wet trend for this month. Early indications from the latest computer models point towards the positive side of rainfall.
One ABC-7 viewer has asked how our drought situation is looking. The U.S. Drought Monitor puts the El Paso area in the “Abnormally Dry” slot, upgraded from being in the “Moderate Drought.” Most of southern New Mexico continues to be in the “Severe” or “Extreme” category.
Although we have picked up a great supply of rain recently, we are still considered in a drought. The El Paso area has been below normal for precipitation the last four years and it will take some time to make up that deficit.
Here is how the drought situation looks all across the country. Graphic and data courtesy of the U.S. Drought Monitor.

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/drmon.gif