Drought levels trend near 12-month highs

For the third week in a row, more than half of the U.S. is enveloped in drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday morning. Nationwide, 54.69% of the country is categorized anywhere between D0 (abnormally dry) and D3 (extreme drought). That’s a hair below the past two weeks, which came in at 56.74% and 54.91%, respectively. However, drought’s pervasiveness across the U.S. is significantly higher than it has been for the rest of 2017. The amount of the country suffering drought a month ago, for example, was 42.66%. Three months ago, it was 36.93%. And six months ago, it was 21.60%. In fact, the last time more than 50% of the U.S. saw drought conditions was about a year ago, when 50.81% was categorized as such back on December 27, 2016. Fortunately, about half (51%) of this drought is categorized as the least severe – abnormally dry. But the remainder is categorized between D1 (moderate drought) and D3 (severe drought). Several areas can expect to see longer-term (6 months or more) impacts to hydrology and other areas, according to NOAA meteorologist David Miskus, who prepared the latest reports. These areas include most of southeastern Iowa, as well as a large portion of the western Dakotas and Montana, and much of the Southwest...more