Over 2 inches of rain soaked Deep South Texas and the Louisiana Bayou, but amounts decreased rapidly moving away from these areas, and a vast majority of the region saw no measurable rain during the week. As a result, conditions began to quickly deteriorate over a large part of the region. Dryness and drought of most intensities (D0 to D3) expanded in coverage across large parts of Oklahoma and adjacent Texas, western and eastern Texas, and parts of Louisiana. In Mississippi, a re-assessment of 90- to 180-day precipitation totals and some unfavorably low agricultural statistics, such as reduced hay production, led to the re-introduction of some D2 in west-central and east-central Mississippi, although most locations in that state changed little from last week. Dryness and drought in Tennessee worsened in a few areas, but most locations were not declining as quickly as some areas farther west on the other side of the Mississippi River. Currently, exceptional drought (D4) covers a sizeable portion of western Texas, and extreme drought (D3) was assessed in the rest of western Texas, much of the Red River Valley (South), parts of northern Oklahoma, and northwestern Arkansas. Much of Oklahoma outside the Panhandle, adjacent Texas, and western Arkansas are 4 to 8 inches below normal rainfall since early June. Less than half or normal rain has fallen during this period across and near the Red River Valley (South). Daily high temperatures averaging over 10 deg. F above normal across most of Oklahoma and some adjacent locations worsened the rate of deterioration.

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