The drought in Arkansas has been ongoing since fall 2025. Very few improvements have been noted in the drought in 2026. If anything, the drought has only gotten worse in 2026. But finally, improvements are being noticed in the latest drought monitor.
Parts of northwest and western Arkansas had improvements in the April 23 drought monitor. But in the April 30 drought monitor, definite improvements to severe, extreme, and exceptional areas of drought were recorded. Data on this drought monitor only runs into the morning of Tuesday, April 28, so that means any rain that fell in the state between then and April 30 will be noted in the following drought monitor.
95% of the state is in moderate drought or above, with the remaining 5% in the abnormally dry category. The abnormally dry category means drought isn’t technically occurring, but it’s abnormally dry for the time of year. Drought is shown beginning at the moderate drought category in light tan.
84% of the state is in severe drought or above. But this has improved from last week. The most noticeable improvement in the latest drought monitor is in the extreme drought area in red. Exceptional drought was also removed in an area of Perry County, too…