24.2 percent
The U.S. Drought Monitor was released last Thursday and just under 25 percent of the state is now in drought (Figure 1). Furthermore, an additional 30 percent of the state now is in abnormal dryness (D0). That means that over 50 percent of the state is in D0 or worse. While the percentages of drought and abnormal dryness at this point in the year are still better than most years since 2020, there has been a big increase in D0 and D1 in the last six weeks. After a two-month hiatus, we now have severe drought again in the state as a pocket of Morrill County is in D2.
Figure 1. Drought Monitor map released last Thursday
