DENVER — Colorado’s drought is getting worse, with unusually dry conditions across more than 85 percent of the state.
The U.S. Drought Monitor’s weekly report released Thursday shows conditions are worst in the southwest corner of the state, where all or parts of about 20 counties are listed in an exceptional drought, the worst of four categories.
The Drought Monitor’s map shows more than 16 percent of the state is in exceptional drought, up from 13 percent a week earlier and 9 percent three months ago.
About 32 percent of the state is in the next-worst category, extreme drought.
Severely dry conditions extend across the Southwestern U.S. Parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah are also classified as being under exceptional drought.
US #Drought Monitor 9 27 18: Drought shrank this week to just under 30% of Lower 48 states, with improvement across Texas, but intensification in Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Colorado.
pic.twitter.com/wiyx6h4fpD — Drought Center (@DroughtCenter) September 27, 2018

All the affected districts lie in the politically sensitive Marathwada and Vidarbha regions and the Devendra Fadnavis government is coming under pressure to undertake drought-relief work right away.
There is a major shortage of drinking water across Marathwada and people are dependent on tankers even for their basic needs,” said Nationalist Congress Party leader Dhananjay Munde.
According to the NCP, the kharif crops in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions are as good as lost.
“Cotton, corn, jowar and soyabean crops in Marathwada have been damaged due to poor rainfall,” Munde told reporters here.
According to information available from the state government, two of the nine major dams in the Marathwada region have completely dried up even before the monsoons have officially come to an end.
The average water available in the dams in Marathwada region is around 28.81 per cent of their capacity.
Minister of State for Water Conservation Vijay Shivtare told reporters that the problem in Marathwada has been aggravated because of increasing acreage under sugarcane.
“Despite poor rainfall, farmers in the region are planting sugarcane which causes ground water to deplete,” Shivtare said.
He admitted that the government was helpless in curbing sugarcane cultivation because sugar co-operatives controlled by politicians have a strong hold in the region.
Meanwhile, the revenue department of the state has announced that a meeting of officials from the relief and rehabilitation (R&R) department will be held on October 15 to take stock of the situation.

Term-two school fees were waived at Catholic primary schools in Longreach, Barcaldine and Blackall.
Some of Brisbane’s elite Catholic colleges with long histories of helping country boarders have extended the time for school fee payments and offered bursaries to keep country students in school.
“Our Catholic schools have done a really good job of looking after isolated families,” Australian Boarding Schools Association executive director Richard Stokes said.
That tells you it’s bad,” he said.
“It’s not that the families want handouts.
They just want opportunities to be able to make sure their kids still get an education and that they can have support along the way to make that happen.
“The families haven’t got a lot of money for anything extra.” In Rockhampton diocese, primary schools and colleges have contributed to drought fundraising with lamington drives and “dress as a farmer” events with proceeds used to buy vouchers for families to spend at local food and grocery stores.
“The spirit and generosity of our Catholic Education family has certainly shone through during this appeal,” Rockhampton Catholic Education director Leesa Jeffcoat said.
The main fundraiser involved a team of 10 students competing in “The Great Wheelbarrow Race”, covering 133km from Mareeba to Chillagoe in the Atherton Tablelands.
“It fits in with our values of keeping an eye out for others,” Nudgee College director of identity Anthony Connellan said.

Callaway County continues to exists in a D3 status, or extreme drought, according to the recently updated U.S. Drought Monitor map.
The next meeting of the Drought Assessment Committee, part of the state Department of Natural Resources, will be 2-4 p.m. Thursday at the Lewis and Clark State Office Building, 1101 Riverside Drive in Jefferson City.
Thirty counties are in D2 or greater status.
This is the same number of counties last week.
Three counties remain in D4 status.
This is the same number of counties last week.
Sixteen counties are in D2 status, severe drought, an increase from 15 last week.
Forty counties no longer are in D2 or greater status.
As drought conditions continue, residents are strongly encouraged to report livestock stress, crop damage, and low water in ponds and streams by submitting information using the Missouri Extension Drought Impact Reporter at bit.ly/2OdCcHd.
Information will be used to assess conditions in each county and to inform drought maps provided by U.S. Drought Monitor for Missouri (bit.ly/2C2nm4j).

Others sell them for extra income.
She researches ways pinyon pines survive drought—at a time when a hotter, drier climate is predicted to drive the trees out of Arizona entirely.
So you’re out here today collecting cones and this orange bucket I guess is your cone collecting kit.
Today was just reconnaissance to see if it’s worth coming out to do any more collecting, and it doesn’t turn out to be a very good year this year, so all I had with me today was just gloves, because it’s a sticky work and you don’t want that resin on your hands if you can help it, and paper bags to collect a few cones in.
So what have you found so far about what makes a pinyon pine more likely to survive a drought?
It’s probably not the insect itself.
What we think is happening is the insect is picking the most vigorous trees.
What’s been interesting is the moth populations have dropped a little bit with the drought, and now it seems like the trees that were susceptible to the moth now are doing much, much better over the last 10 years than the ones that are resistant to the moth.
So that’s what we’re looking for is these ones that managed to survive when the others have died, and what is it about them that allows them to survive and will they ensure the future of pinyon pine.
Catherine thanks much for the field trip today, appreciate it.

Drier and hotter than normal weather for most of the summer finally dried North Alabama out enough to be in an official ‘drought.’ Most of us are in the ‘too dry’ category, but some have been drier than others and are now in moderate drought.
Recent rainfall not enough: Dr. Christy’s analysis shows that zones 1, 2, and 4 need more than five inches of rain to get out of drought; that’s most of North Alabama.
Every drop counts, but this won’t get the job done.
Soaking rain helps soon: Wednesday looks like the wettest day of the week; if you haven’t gotten much rain yet, Wednesday is your day.
Some of the heavier downpours could produce up to four inches of rain through Wednesday and Thursday.
All day rain, or just spotty showers?
A 70% chance of rain for Wednesday and a 50% chance of rain for Thursday: does that mean it will rain all day long and soak everyone?
Thursday, on the other hand, is a ‘split decision.’ The cold front gets far enough south that some of North Alabama and Southern Tennessee completely dries out; for most of Central and northeastern Alabama, it stays showery with occasional downpours and a few thunderstorms through Thursday afternoon and evening.
So this might not be enough to totally rid ourselves of the drought that has slowly built over the summer, but it is a step in the right direction!
It’s always online at WHNT.com/Weather and in the “Daily Forecast” section on Live Alert 19!

"He pulled up and he says, ‘I’ve had an idea … and you can’t say no.
In just four weeks, with the help of his wife, Glenn ‘Yogi’ Kendall and fellow driver Peter Wright amassed more than $100,000 worth of hay and farm supplies from WA farmers and businesses for drought-affected NSW farmers.
It is the second hay convoy to leave from Western Australia since it was declared last month that 100 per cent of NSW was in drought.
These people down here, they know drought … they’ve seen drought so they just jumped on real quick and supported us," he said.
Promoting regional life Mr Kendall said the convoy would also highlight the struggles of rural living.
"Each night for the next five nights we’ve got structured events organised so we want to promote rural businesses, we want to promote regional living, we want to promote the idea of locals looking after locals," he said.
With the staggering amount supplies donated, and a lack of trucks to cart it across the Nullarbor, about 100 tonnes has been left behind in WA.
Communities pull together On the invitation of farmer Emily Starcevich, the convoy made its first overnight rest stop in the small town of Salmon Gums on WA’s south-east coast.
You’ve got to support your neighbour," he said.
With a population of just under 800 people, on Monday night the Salmon Gums community raised $800 for drought relief, which will accompany the eight trucks of hay and pellets bound for NSW farmers.

From July 1 to the end of summer, Bend received less than a fifth of an inch of rain, which made that period the fifth-driest on record, according to John Peck, meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Pendleton.
Summer is often a dry time across much of Central Oregon, with an average of about an inch and a half of rain falling in Bend between July and September.
Still, the abnormally dry weather this year plunged the region further into drought, forcing irrigation districts to draw down local reservoirs and raising big questions about Central Oregon’s next irrigation season.
Gorman said that water levels in the reservoir are just 12 feet from what the Oregon Water Resources Department considers empty.
The low levels make it nearly impossible for the reservoir to fill this year.
A dry winter has a more dramatic effect on water levels for irrigation than a dry summer does, but Central Oregon had both this year, Gorman said.
Low snow totals, especially in the high country, left the Deschutes River Basin with less water than expected, and kept the underground flows in the area from being replenished, he said.
“I can recall maybe three or four days where we saw thunderstorms,” Peck said.
Because those thunderstorms never came this summer, the demand for water from reservoirs was higher than it would be in an average year, Gorman said.
Unlike last year, when the Milli Fire burning outside of Sisters made air throughout Central Oregon unhealthy for weeks, much of the smoke came from fires nowhere near Central Oregon, Svelund said.

HARARE – A leading agriculture information portal has urged farmers to sign up for new crop insurance against predicted crop failure due to the looming El-Nino-induced drought.
The Farmers Voice warned farmers of the looming El Nino — a warming of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific which can lead to scorching weather in eastern and southern Africa.
Up until recently, farmers in Zimbabwe could only insure against hail, fire or frost.
But after many of years of planning and improvements in climate prediction technology, multi-peril crop insurance products have come onto the market.
The catch, of course, has been the cost.
Farmers Voice said “the government needs to promote insurance or make it part of its Command Agriculture package”.
There is general consensus that this year’s maize output will be way below potential.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network — a leading provider of early warning and analysis on food insecurity — warned that between July and September this year, food crisis is expected across most typical grain deficit districts in the southern part of the country as stocks dry out.

AUSTRALIA is not the only continent suffering through drought at present.
European grain trade organisation Coceral last week put out its September estimates, forecasting a European Union (EU) wheat crop below 130 million tonnes of wheat, well below the averages of the past five years.
In particular, northern European states such as the UK, Germany, Denmark and Sweden will have markedly lower production this year compared with 2017.
Production is down in the US but there are good inventories.
Russia will be down 10m tonnes from last year (42m tonnes) and given the EU is also light on for wheat it will most likely be the US that fills the export void.
Tobin Gorey There has been significant media surrounding the hot English summer, which has been the warmest since record keeping began.
Only Spain experienced a significant year on year increase in production, due to issues with floods in 2017.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia commodity analyst Tobin Gorey said the drought meant Europe would not be a major player in wheat exports this year.
He said he expected US Department of Agriculture estimates predicting Russia would export 35 million tonnes of wheat this year would not come to pass.
“Russia will be down 10m tonnes from last year (42m tonnes) and given the EU is also light on for wheat it will most likely be the US that fills the export void.” The EU is importing far more wheat this season according to EU data, which showed imports landing in the Netherlands, Greece and Slovenia.