Summer's over, but drought persists; two-thirds of contiguous US affected

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/27/14124426-summers-over-but-drought-persists-two-thirds-of-contiguous-us-affected?lite

Sept. 27, 2012
By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

You'd think the end of summer would mean the end — or at least beginning of the end — of this year's drought, but the nation's official stat keepers on Thursday revealed otherwise.

With the Midwest corn harvest in full swing, the worst U.S. drought in decades actually worsened: 65.45 percent of the lower 48 states was in some form of drought on Tuesday, up from 64.82 percent a week earlier, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

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Other stats from the latest Drought Monitor were not encouraging:

Areas in extreme or exceptional drought, the two worst categories, were at 21.5 percent, up from 20.7 percent a week earlier.
The worst drought conditions remain in the heart of the U.S. breadbasket, weather.com reported: Nebraska at 73 percent, Kansas at 51 percent and Oklahoma at 42 percent.
Iowa: 100 percent of the nation's biggest corn producer is in some form of drought. That's the same as the previous week.
Minnesota: 77 percent is now in drought, up from 64 percent, with extreme conditions in the northwest and spreading into southern areas, weather.com noted.
North Dakota: 95 percent is in drought, up from 88 percent the week before.
South Dakota: The entire state is in some form of drought, up from 96 percent.


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