What Is A 'Potential Tropical Cyclone' Exactly?

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Without a doubt, Helene did more harm than good. More than 200 people were killed, hundreds more are missing and towns are still reeling from the hurricane's devastating impacts. But while the flooding in the Appalachian Mountains was horrific, the storm did bring moisture to drought-stricken areas that desperately needed it.

“The intense rains dramatically improved or ended the various degrees of dryness and drought that had been affecting many of the areas impacted by Helene, especially from the Appalachians westward through the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and southward to the central Gulf Coast,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Alabama’s drought was cut in half, completely eliminating the severe and extreme levels of drought the state has been experiencing. In Tennessee, drought levels have gone from nearly 80% of the state pre-Helene, to less than 20% of the state now. Nearly 20% of Tennessee was in extreme drought before the storm, and now there are no extreme drought conditions. Drought conditions were completely eliminated in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Parts of West Virginia and Ohio need rain the most. In fact, the drought has been so bad in West Virginia, several communities have been running extremely low on drinking water. While Helene didn’t eradicate the drought there, it did improve it. Before Helene, 93% of West Virginia was experiencing severe drought; now, that number is down to 67%. The level of extreme drought dropped from 75% of the state to 40% and exceptional drought also dropped from 16% to 5%.

In Ohio, nearly 70% of the state is still in drought conditions, compared to nearly 90% before Helene. However, the state's level of severe drought was cut in half, from roughly 64% to 32%.

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While some parts of the country improved, the drought worsened in other areas.

“Precipitation was almost non-existent over a large area from the western Great Lakes and most of the Mississippi Valley, westward to the Pacific Coast,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. “Above-normal temperatures accompanied the low precipitation totals, resulting in dryness and drought persisting or intensifying across this area covering a majority of the contiguous states.”

Drought conditions expanded across eastern Colorado and portions of the Dakotas, as temperatures climbed as much as 20 degrees above normal with little to no rain. Colorado is up to 71% of the state experiencing drought conditions, compared to 61% just last week.

As for what's ahead, mostly dry conditions will prevail in the short-term across much of the country, as well as above-normal temperatures. Most areas experiencing the driest conditions will have little chance of rain for the upcoming week to two weeks.

Florida and the northern Gulf Coast are really the only exception to this, as they will get an abundance of tropical moisture in the coming days, bringing even more rain in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

(Deeper Dive: Read more about what we're tracking in the Gulf of Mexico here.)