Weekly Global Climate Highlights Map for September 23, 2000

1. Western United States:

HIGH TEMPERATURES DOMINATE THE WEST
Weekly departures of +2°C to +4°C covered most of the West from the Pacific Coast of California and southern Oregon southeastward to the Rio Grande. Highs soared above 40°C in Redding and Red Bluff, California (40°N), and prevailed across southeastern California, western Arizona, and southern Nevada while readings exceeded 30°C elsewhere. Weekly lows remained above 20°C across southeastern California, southern Nevada, and the southern and central portions of Arizona [WARM - Up to 10 weeks].

2. Central United States:

UNUSUALLY DRY CONDITIONS PERSIST
Between 25 and 110 mm of rain brought limited relief to east-central Oklahoma, northwestern Arkansas, northwestern Missouri, southeastern Iowa, and northern Illinois, but weekly totals remained below 25 mm across the remainder of the region. Since late July, little or no precipitation has fallen on much of western and central Texas and much of Oklahoma but up to 100 mm fell on eastern portions of Texas. Meanwhile, between 25 and 100 mm of rain accumulated across the central and northern Great Plains. Short-term precipitation shortfalls ranged from 100 to 150 mm across the central and southern Great Plains from eastern Kansas and western Texas southeastward to the Gulf Coast [DRY - Up to 24 weeks].

3. Southern South America:

STILL ABNORMALLY COLD IN SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL ARGENTINA
Temperatures remained 2°C to 4°C below normal across central and southern Argentina, but near-normal temperatures prevailed to the north. Subfreezing lows (down to -5°C) dominated the southern half of Argentina, but the mercury managed to reach 20°C across most of northern and central Argentina [COLD - Up to 6 weeks].

4. Central Chile:

WET WEATHER DEVELOPS
Pacific storms delivered 50 to 100 mm of rain this past week on top of the 50 to 200 mm received the week before. During the last 8 weeks, 170 to 490 mm of precipitation has fallen on the region, yielding moisture excesses of 50 to 240 mm [WET - Up to 6 weeks].

5. Brazil:

FAVORABLY DRY CONDITIONS REPORTED
Fewer than 30 mm of rain fell on southern and central Brazil north of Parana while totals of 50 to 100 mm soaked Santa Catarina. Across the region, short-term (8-week) soil moisture surpluses ranged from 50 to 270 mm [WET - Up to 6 weeks].

6. Uruguay and Southern Brazil:

HEAVY PRECIPITATION DRENCHES AREA
Torrential rains (100 to 200 mm) inundated the southern half of Rio Grande do Sul province of Brazil and much of northern and eastern Uruguay while 25 to 100 mm of precipitation fell on the remainder of Uruguay. During the past 8 weeks, 100 to 500 mm of rain has fallen on the region, allowing moisture surpluses of 50 to 110 mm to accumulate [WET - Up to 5 weeks].

7. Central Asia:

LARGE WARM ANOMALY PERSISTS
Temperature departures of +2°C to +5°C covered a large portion of central Asia extending from Turkmenistan eastward across southeastern Siberia and Japan. The mercury reached 36°C at Ashabad, Turkmenistan (36°N) [WARM - Up to 16 weeks].

8.  Central and Southern China:

DRY ANOMALY DEVELOPS
Except for moderate rains of 25 to 60 mm in eastern Sichuan, little or no rain fell across much of the region from Ningxia and Shaanxi Provinces southward to Guangxi and western Guangdong. Moisture deficits up to 250 mm have accumulated since late July [DRY - Up to 7 weeks].