Drought continues to plague U.S., especially West

Severe drought plagues 21 percent of the U.S., and 41 percent of the country is under a drought watch or warning, mostly west of the Mississippi River, notes Reid Wilson of The Washington Post., in a story that uses maps done by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The maps are updated weekly; here is last week's:

"Every inch of five states—California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Nebraska—are experiencing some level of drought," Wilson writes. Two-thirds of California is experiencing extreme or exceptional drought. "Much of the northern Texas Panhandle is under extreme or exceptional drought warning, as is most of California and parts of northern Nevada. Parts of California, Nevada and Arizona are drier than they have been in 1,200 years, putting at risk millions of acres of farm and forest lands." Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas are also experiencing serious drought conditions. (Read more)