Drought — Marshall Islands, Guam

2025-04-08 to 2025-04-30 · Marshall Islands, Guam

Event narrative

Kwajalein and Wotje entered severe (D2) drought on April 8th, spreading to Ailinglapalap on April 22nd and to Utirik on April 29th. Wotje would further degrade to extreme (D3) drought on April 29th as well. For the March-April period Wotje reported 1.95 inches of rain, when a little over 5.5 inches is normal. Utirik recorded only 2.35 inches of rain in April. Kwajalein experienced a dry start to the year with 4.3 inches for January-March, below the normal value 10.85 inches. Rain did increase at Kwajalein in April but the 4.21 recorded is about 68 percent of normal for April. Ailinglapalap saw 6.12 inches in April which is 83 percent of normal but this followed a dry March with just 1.82 inches reported (29 percent of normal).

Wider weather episode

Prolong periods of dry weather across the northern Marshall Islands caused drought conditions to worsen across the Marshall Islands, especially for the islands north of 8N, where islands entered Severe (D2) drought, and one island even degrading to Extreme (D3) drought near the end of the month.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1247063. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.