National Climatic Data Center, 13 September 2002

U.S. Drought Highlights:

• On the national scale, severe to extreme drought affected about 33 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of August 2002
  • moderate to extreme drought affected about 48 percent of the contiguous U.S.
• Most of the western U.S. continued to suffer from drought, both short-term and long-term
• Conditions continued very dry over parts of the adjoining Great Plains
• August was dry across much of the eastern U.S. into the Ohio Valley, with parts of the Southeast suffering from severe long-term drought

Contents Of This Report:

• National Overview
• Regional Drought Watch
  • Western U.S.
  • Central U.S.
  • Eastern U.S.
• Palmer Drought Indices*
• Standardized Precipitation Index*
• Regional Precipitation Ranks*
• Statewide Precipitation Ranks*
• Weekly Drought Monitoring Tools*
• State/Regional Moisture Status*

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