Only a few days into what looks to be a summer for the history books, droughts are already sweeping the United States by storm.
According to fresh data from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s drought monitor, all but five US states — Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Alaska, and Hawaii — are completely drought free. And if you really squint, only Ohio is completely clear of any abnormally dry conditions whatsoever.
With dangerous heat scorching the US west, high plains, and southeast, literally every other state is experiencing some “moderate drought” conditions at a minimum.
The UNL’s drought map categorizes dry weather conditions on a five-point scale, starting from the “abnormally dry” D0 and ranging all the way to D4, or “exceptional drought.” At the D1 or moderate drought level currently cooking most states, dryland crops suffer, while hay harvests experience severe setbacks and wildfire risks climb.
Some of the hardest hit states in the union include Colorado, with 96.5 percent of the state experiencing D1 levels of drought at a minimum, and 9.3 percent of the state under extreme D4 conditions. North Carolina is also parched, with at least 90.4 percent at D2 or above — characterized by voluntary and mandatory water use restrictions in some areas — 7.02 of which reaches the unholy threshold for D4.
The researchers behind the UNL drought monitor caveat that “no two states have the same experience during a drought.” In other words, these are broad-scale observations that might not translate to each locality — two cities within the same county could have drastically different approaches to water table management, for example, skewing the impacts of drought for folks on the ground.
Still, there’s plenty of hay to be made out of these broad observations. For instance, about 46 percent of the yield from the winter wheat harvest on the high plains was “rated in very poor to poor condition,” the researchers observe. State-by-state, the UNL team writes that “more than one-half of the crop was rated very poor to poor in Nebraska (83 percent), Colorado (63 percent), and Kansas (55 percent)” due to enduring dry spells.
In the western states, according to the monitor, “drought deterioration was commonly observed across roughly the northern half of the region, amid significantly above-normal temperatures and mounting water-supply concerns.”
Some areas have gotten a reprieve, as rain showers across the Midwest and Northeast have helped ease the worst excesses of drought in those regions. But for those still waiting in the high-impact zones — and with dueling heat domes fueled by El Niño knocking at the door — relief may be a long way out.
More on extreme drought: Climate Scientists Shake Their Heads as First US City Running Completely Out of Water
The post All But Five US States Are Currently Experiencing Droughts appeared first on Futurism.
