Drought — Micronesia, Guam

2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Micronesia, Guam

Event narrative

Yap State continued to be the hardest impacted state within the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) when it came to the drought across the region. Yap Proper was in extreme drought (D3) at the beginning of April and degraded to exceptional drought (D4) on April 9th. Nearby Ulithi and surrounding islands degraded from severe (D2) to extreme (D3) drought on April 9th, latter degrading to exceptional drought (D4) on April 16th. Woleai, an island in eastern Yap State, was in moderate (D1) drought in the beginning April and degraded to D2 on April 9th, and then to D3 on April 16th before improving back to D2 on April 23rd as passing trade-wind disturbances brought increased rainfall to Woleai and nearby islands. The U.S. Coast Guard, with U.S. embassy and USAID partners continued to delivered more than 15,000 lbs of essential drought relief supplies, mainly to Yap State, from April 9-13th. Across the rest of the FSM, drought conditions continued improved. Chuuk Lagoon in Chuuk State saw D1 conditions become D0 April 16th, while Pingelap in Pohnpei State, improved to D0 at the beginning of April and no drought or dryness reported April 23rd.

Wider weather episode

Drought impacts persisted across Yap State, the Marianas, and the Northern Marshall Islands as the dry season continued along with the dry phase of El Nio, especially for the islands near and north of 7N.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1175559. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.