Drought Monitor report: Denver area now drought free, moderate to severe drought persists south and east

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It should come as no surprise that recent rainfall across the state has made a big impact on drought conditions across the state. Denver, which as recently as the April 25th Drought Monitor report was classified as being in Moderate Drought is now drought-free, thanks in large part to the record rainfall we saw across the area last week.

Here is a look at the Drought Monitor from April 25th for Colorado:

And here is the Drought Monitor released today:

Still some work to do across the southern and eastern reaches of the state, but what an improvement we've seen. Today's rainfall should also focus some wet weather on areas shown above as Abnormally Dry or still experiencing drought conditions which is great news.

Colorado weather: Cold front to bring you more rain, greatest focus will be south
Another cold front is set to blow through Colorado, bringing the Denver area chances for rain, thunder, and hail, but the biggest focus of this system will be for southern Colorado toward the Osage Country. The cold will be noticeable, but gardeners don’t need to be concerned – as we discuss below. …

Nationally we see severe drought persists for the central and southern plains as of this update:

But even in the hardest hit drought areas we've seen some improvement in recent weeks, with areas of class 1 and class 2 drought improvement over the last four weeks up and down the lee side of the Rockies.

In fact, with help from today's system that's moving through, we see some of the greatest positive precipitation anomalies (above average precipitation) forecast for southern Colorado, New Mexico, and the Oklahoma/Texas panhandles over the next 10 days – which is a great spot for areas still impacted by drought.

Keep an eye on the sky today, and let us know if you see more rain!