ATLANTA — The nation’s drought picture has shifted sharply this week, with some regions seeing rare early-season rainfall and others slipping deeper into dryness, according to Richard Tinker, the meteorologist and drought expert with the National Weather Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

Tinker was lead author on the new map released today.

“This week features actually quite a bit of change from last week,” Tinker said. “Out West, they had some very unusual early-season precipitation — in places like California and parts of Nevada that normally don’t get it. The whole West has seen some pretty good precipitation over the last month or so, so we brought in quite a bit of improvement.”

Early Rain Brings Hope Out West

Much of the western United States, including C

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