Drought — Marshall Islands, Guam

2024-07-01 to 2024-07-30 · Marshall Islands, Guam

Event narrative

Wotje, one of the northern islands of the Marshall islands was the only monitored island with observations that was in D2 (severe) drought at the beginning of July. Due to the lack of rain reported from Wotje, it was degraded to D3 (extreme drought) on July 16th. The drought monitor would keep it at this category through July. However, near the end of July questions started to be raised of possible exposer issues of the rain gage as rain amounts did not appear to be matching what was expected to satellite imagery and reports from relatively nearby islands such as Kwajalein. The weather service office on Majuro later confirmed there were exposure issues at Wotje and that no drought impacts were being reported or observed. With the exclusion of Wotje, the U.S. Drought Monitor indicated that the Republic of the Marshall Islands had no drought or dryness at the end of July.

Wider weather episode

Increased rainfall across Micronesia led to improving condition across the region, taking Yap and the Marshall Islands out of drought conditions.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1206105. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.