Thursday’s report from U.S. Drought Monitor shows a patch of extreme drought over large parts of Hopkins and Franklin counties for the first time since midwinter 2017.
Flecks of Lamar and Delta counties are also in the growing red zone under extreme drought.
A second swath of red is also affecting parts of eight counties in East Texas. The remainder of the region remains in severe drought, which is one order of magnitude less than extreme.
The U.S. Drought Monitor report says some areas of Northeast Texas recorded less than 25 percent of normal rainfall over the past 90 days. Substantial, multi-month rainfall deficits are more scattered north and east of the Red River Valley.
The potential good news is that rain is in the forecast in Northeast Texas for the next several days. The region could get several inches of rain through next Tuesday.
