U.S. Drought Conditions Regress

By CnAgri Print

The nation's worst drought in decades has taken a turn for the worse for a second straight week, after conditions had improved for more than a month.

According to the Associated Press, this week's U.S. Drought Monitor report shows that 62.7 percent of the continental U.S. was in some form of drought as of Tuesday. That's up from 60.1 percent the previous week.

The portion of the lower 48 states in extreme or exceptional drought also rose to 20.12 percent from last week's 19.04 percent.

The dry conditions intensified sharply in Oklahoma, where 90.5 percent of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought. The portion of South Dakota in those two classifications rose more than 8 percentage points, to 63.32 percent.