Map Shows Drought on Rise Across US

More than a third of the U.S. experienced some kind of drought conditions in the past week. As of December 3, data from the U.S. Drought Monitor showed, 36.5 percent of the land area of the U.S., including Puerto Rico, was affected by moderate to exceptional drought—up from 34.7 percent the week before and a leap from 25.2 percent in early September. Across the region, 40.2 percent of land area was completely drought-free, with 23.3 out of drought but considered "abnormally dry." According to the data, 22.9 percent of land was under "moderate drought," 9.7 percent was under "severe drought," 3.4 percent was under "extreme drought" and 0.5 percent was affected by "exceptional drought." The week prior, ending November 26, 38.1 percent of the region was drought-free, 27.2 percent was abnormally dry, 21 percent was in moderate drought, 9.6 percent was in severe drought, 3.6 percent was in extreme drought and 0.5 percent was under exceptional drought.

Despite the overall rise in drought-affected areas, the more intense drought categories—extreme and exceptional—decreased from a combined 4.1 percent to 3.9 percent. The U.S. Drought Monitor map shows that the worst-affected areas include southwestern Texas, the Great Plains, western Arizona and the Northeast. On X, formerly Twitter, NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System said on Thursday that 65.1 percent of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic was in drought, with extreme drought present in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. "Drought or abnormal dryness expanded or increased in intensity in some of the dry areas, including a few parts of Hawaii, the Rockies, and Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys; much of the Carolinas and Virginia; and northern parts of the Northeast which missed out on the precipitation this week," NOAA said in a weekly drought report. Precipitation lessened drought conditions across some western states and regions around the northern Great Plains, Great Lakes and central Appalachians, the agency added. It continued: "Nationally, expansion was more than contraction, so the nationwide moderate to exceptional drought area percentage increased this week, although the area experiencing abnormal dryness and drought, as well as extreme to exceptional drought, decreased." According to NIDIS, over the next month, drought conditions are expected to lessen across Texas and in parts of the Midwest and Northwest. However, drought conditions may worsen across the Southwest and Southeast. While California appears to be relatively drought-free, Arizona is still in the grips of intense drought. The southwestern region of the U.S. has been in a megadrought for the better part of 20 years, considered to be one of the worst in more than 1,200 years. "The megadrought has also had a major impact on soil moisture and forests in the SW, and has resulted in large numbers of tree deaths, plus a major increase in the severity and extent of wildfires in the region," Jonathan Overpeck, the dean of environmental studies at the University of Michigan, told Newsweek. The Southwest's megadrought is expected to get worse as the effects of climate change result in lower and lower levels of precipitation across the region. Hannah Cloke, a professor of hydrology at the University of Reading in the U.K., previously told Newsweek: "We know that climate change as a result of human activity is already making droughts worse. "This is because of shifting weather patterns, influenced by the changes in temperatures in oceans and the atmosphere, in part because warmer air holds more moisture. This is one of the reasons why extreme weather is getting more extreme—heavy rainfall can be even heavier, and droughts can last longer." Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about drought? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.