Where is drought this week?
U.S. Drought Monitor
U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook
Drought Impacts Report
NIDIS in Your Region
NIDIS coordinates Drought Early Warning Systems (DEWS) in many regions of the U.S. Through DEWS, stakeholders explore and demonstrate a range of early warning and drought risk reduction strategies. Click here for more information.
As of July 20 - 26, 2016, drought (D1-D4) is impacting:
of the US and 20.8% of the lower 48 states.
people in the U.S. and 102.4 in the lower 48 states.
Showers and thunderstorms produced 2 to 4 inches of rain in parts of the upper Mississippi Valley and environs this past week. However, rain mostly bypassed some Midwestern locations, including the lower Great Lakes region. Outside of the Midwest, showers were generally light and scattered, although spotty rainfall provided local relief from hot weather in the Four Corners states and the lower Southeast. Late in the drought-monitoring period, coverage and intensity of shower activity increased in the Gulf Coast region. Most of the remainder of the country experienced hot, mostly dry conditions, leading to an expansion of short-term drought in the south-central U.S. and contributing to an increase in wildfire activity in parts of the West. Temperatures above 100°F were commonly observed early in the period on the Plains, but Midwestern temperatures above 95°F were limited to the southwestern fringe of the major corn and soybean production areas. Late in the period, heat replaced previously cool conditions in the Northwest, while temperatures fell to near- or below-normal levels in much of the Plains and Midwest.