Drought is gone from much of US.
Much of the country is currently drought-free (shown in white).
Areas of Florida, too, continue to suffer from severe drought conditions—a stark contrast to early 2016, when it received record rainfalls.
Image via NASA.
At the end of April 2017, just 6 percent of the United States was afflicted by drought – the lowest level in 17 years of analysis by the U.S. Drought Monitor, according to a report from NASA’s Earth Observatory.
That is a substantial turnaround from a few years ago, when long and short term droughts spread across much of the nation.
Matthew Rodell, a hydrologist at NASA, said in a statement: Two parts of the country that have composed a big portion of [its] drought area in the last decade, Texas and California, now have mostly normal conditions.
Rainfall gave some respite in late 2012 before much of the country started drying out again.
By 2014, half of the U.S. was experiencing some level of drought.
Bottom line: As of the end of April, 2017, drought has disappeared from much of the United States.