A new drought monitor dropped Thursday morning, February 12, and it paints a dire picture in Arkansas. Rain is definitely needed for almost all communities in the Natural State. It’s a rainfall deficit that’s been ongoing since last summer, worsening last fall.
Last week’s drought monitor included exceptional drought in northeast Arkansas. Exceptional drought, the highest drought category, was found in Izard, Stone, Independence, Sharp, Woodruff, and Jackson Counties. It also included extreme drought, category 4 out of a possible 5, in central and northeast Arkansas, as well as a corner of Benton County in Northwest Arkansas.
This week’s drought monitor includes the melting of snow and ice from the late January winter storm, but data collection for this newest drought monitor ended Tuesday morning, February 10. It was released on Thursday morning, February 12.
The exceptional drought has grown by 1.21% since last week, in dark red, in northeast Arkansas. Again, this is the highest level of drought expressed by the drought monitor. Extreme drought grew, too, growing by 3.82% since last week in Arkansas. Extreme drought was added to a spot of Howard and Sevier Counties, in southwest Arkansas.
Rain is needed, and more rain than average for this time of year, to climb out of this tough drought.
That’s because the rainfall deficit since the fall of 2025 is so great. In fact, from November 2025 to January 2026 has been one of the driest November to January time periods on record in Arkansas. These aren’t usually dry months for Arkansas either. November in Little Rock averages 4.72 inches of rainfall, December averages 5.08 inches of rainfall, and January averages 3.50 inches of rainfall.
From November 2025 to January 2026, it’s the third driest stretch in that time period on record…