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2026 America’s Drought Report: Verified Statistics, Trends, and Data Points

The 2026 America’s Drought Report compiles verified, primary-source drought statistics for the United States into one citable reference for journalists, researchers, analysts, and the public. As of the U.S. Drought Monitor map valid June 23, 2026, 52.33 percent of the contiguous United States was in moderate drought or worse (D1 to D4), and 132.1 million people lived inside a drought area. Every figure in this report is dated, geo-tagged, and linked to its original source. Figures that could not be verified against a primary source were excluded. Data verified as of June 28, 2026.

This report measures drought conditions, agricultural exposure, water supply, economic loss, and long-term climate trends. It does not cover state turf-watering rules or rebate programs; those are tracked separately in the 2026 US Turf Water Restriction Tracker. Two structural caveats apply throughout and are stated once here: the NOAA Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters product was retired on May 8, 2025, so its loss data is authoritative only through calendar year 2024; and the most recent comprehensive USGS national water-use estimate is for 2015, the latest full survey available.

Executive summary

  • 52.33 percent of the contiguous United States was in drought (D1 to D4) on the U.S. Drought Monitor map valid June 23, 2026, up from 25.8 percent (D1 to D4, U.S. plus Puerto Rico) one year earlier. Source: U.S. Drought Monitor; NOAA NCEI.
  • 132.1 million people in the United States lived in a drought area during the week of June 17 to 23, 2026. Source: NOAA NIDIS Drought.gov.
  • The 2012 U.S. drought and heat wave remains the single costliest drought event on record at 41.7 billion dollars in 2024-adjusted dollars (30.0 billion nominal) and 123 deaths. Source: NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters.
  • Drought caused 32 separate billion-dollar disasters between 1980 and 2024, totaling about 367.5 billion dollars in 2024 dollars, the second-costliest hazard category after tropical cyclones. Source: NOAA NCEI.
  • The period 2000 to 2021 was the driest 22-year stretch in southwestern North America since at least the year 800, making the current event the region’s most severe megadrought in roughly 1,200 years. Source: Williams, Cook, and Smerdon (2022), Nature Climate Change.
  • Lake Mead sat near 1,044.9 feet (about 28 percent of capacity) and Lake Powell near 3,526.6 feet (about 24 percent) in late June 2026, keeping the Lower Colorado River Basin under a Tier 1 shortage for the 2026 water year. Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
  • Irrigation accounted for 118 billion gallons per day of U.S. water withdrawals in 2015, about 37 percent of the national total of 322 billion gallons per day. Source: USGS Circular 1441.
  • A statistically significant long-term trend toward drought is documented in the Southwest: the 1895 to 2020 Palmer Drought Severity Index trend is negative and significant (p = 0.002) in five of six Southwest states. Source: U.S. EPA technical documentation (2024).

Key findings

The strongest verified findings, each with number, timeframe, geography, and source. Drought Monitor categories are cumulative (D2 to D4 means severe drought or worse).

  1. 52.33 percent of the contiguous U.S. was in drought (D1 to D4) and 33.54 percent was in severe drought or worse (D2 to D4) on the map valid June 23, 2026. Geography: contiguous United States. Source: U.S. Drought Monitor (UNL/NDMC), 2026.
  2. 69.95 percent of the contiguous U.S. was at least abnormally dry (D0 to D4) and 1.24 percent was in exceptional drought (D4) on June 23, 2026. Geography: contiguous United States. Source: U.S. Drought Monitor, 2026.
  3. 132.1 million people in the U.S. lived in drought areas during the week of June 17 to 23, 2026, compared with about 71.9 million one year earlier. Geography: United States. Source: NOAA NIDIS Drought.gov, 2026; NOAA NCEI, 2025.
  4. 239.5 million acres of crops were experiencing drought (D0 or worse) as of June 23, 2026, and 229.4 million acres were in moderate drought or worse (D1 or worse). Geography: United States. Source: NOAA NIDIS Drought.gov, 2026.
  5. 45 U.S. states had some area in moderate drought or worse (D1 or worse) as of June 23, 2026. Geography: United States. Source: NOAA NIDIS Drought.gov, 2026.
  6. The 2012 U.S. drought and heat wave cost 41.7 billion dollars in 2024-adjusted dollars (30.0 billion nominal) and caused 123 deaths, the costliest U.S. drought event on record. Timeframe: 2012 event. Geography: central agricultural states. Source: NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Disasters, final 2024 dataset.
  7. Drought produced 32 billion-dollar disasters from 1980 to 2024 totaling about 367.5 billion dollars in 2024 dollars, roughly 13 percent of all U.S. billion-dollar disaster losses. Geography: United States. Source: NOAA NCEI, 2024.
  8. The largest drought and heat wave billion-dollar event since 2020 was the 2022 Western and Central event at 23.5 billion dollars in 2024 dollars and 136 deaths. Geography: Western and Central U.S. Source: NOAA NCEI, 2024.
  9. 2000 to 2021 was the driest 22-year period in southwestern North America since at least the year 800, and roughly 19 percent of the 2021 drought severity was attributable to anthropogenic climate trends. Geography: southwestern North America. Source: Williams, Cook, and Smerdon (2022), Nature Climate Change, DOI 10.1038/s41558-022-01290-z.
  10. Anthropogenic warming accounted for about 47 percent of the 2000 to 2018 soil-moisture drought severity in southwestern North America (model interquartile range 35 to 105 percent). Geography: southwestern North America. Source: Williams et al. (2020), Science, DOI 10.1126/science.aaz9600.
  11. Lake Mead was near 1,044.9 feet and about 28 percent of capacity, roughly 184 feet below its full pool of 1,229 feet, in late June 2026. Geography: Lower Colorado River. Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 2026.
  12. Lake Powell was near 3,526.6 feet and about 24 percent of live capacity in late June 2026. Geography: Upper Colorado River. Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 2026.
  13. The Colorado River supplies 35 to 40 million people across seven basin states, and agriculture uses about 70 percent of the river’s water. Geography: Colorado River Basin. Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
  14. U.S. total water withdrawals were 322 billion gallons per day in 2015, with thermoelectric power (133 billion gallons per day) and irrigation (118 billion gallons per day) the two largest categories. Timeframe: 2015 (latest comprehensive survey). Geography: United States. Source: USGS Circular 1441, 2018.
  15. The 1895 to 2020 Palmer Drought Severity Index trend for the six-state Southwest is negative and statistically significant (slope -0.013 units per year, p = 0.002), with every state except Colorado showing a significant trend toward drought. Geography: six-state Southwest. Source: U.S. EPA technical documentation, 2024.

Current drought conditions (June 2026)

The U.S. Drought Monitor is released every Thursday and depicts conditions through the preceding Tuesday. It is a convergence-of-evidence product combining precipitation, streamflow, reservoir levels, soil moisture, evaporative demand, and vegetation health, authored by federal climatologists and ground-truthed by about 300 local experts. Categories run from D0 (abnormally dry, a pre-drought watch class) to D4 (exceptional drought). The categories are percentile-based, not fixed thresholds: D1 corresponds to roughly a 1-in-5 to 1-in-10 year dryness, and D4 to the driest 2 percent of the historical record.

Category (cumulative) % of contiguous U.S. Definition
D0 to D4 (abnormally dry or worse) 69.95% Includes pre-drought watch areas
D1 to D4 (moderate drought or worse) 52.33% Strict “in drought” threshold
D2 to D4 (severe drought or worse) 33.54% Crop and pasture losses likely
D3 to D4 (extreme drought or worse) 11.56% Major crop and water losses
D4 (exceptional drought) 1.24% Exceptional and widespread losses

Source: U.S. Drought Monitor, contiguous U.S. statistics, map valid June 23, 2026 (released June 25, 2026). All values are cumulative and CONUS-only; all-50-state figures differ. What the numbers mean: just over half the contiguous country met the strict definition of drought in late June 2026, and one-third was in severe drought or worse, a sharp expansion from the prior year. Conditions had been easing week to week through June (D1 to D4 was 56.16 percent on June 9 and 52.33 percent by June 23), so the single-week figure should be read as a moving value, not a fixed annual statistic.

Economic cost of drought

The authoritative federal loss record is the NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database, which counts insured and uninsured direct losses (physical damage and agricultural loss), CPI-adjusted to 2024 dollars in its final dataset. Two limitations matter for any citation. First, the product was retired on May 8, 2025; its data is complete and authoritative only through calendar year 2024, and no official 2025 or 2026 figures exist. Second, it counts direct losses only and excludes indirect or ripple economic effects, so it understates total drought cost.

Metric Value Basis
2012 drought and heat wave (costliest on record) $41.7B (2024$) / $30.0B nominal; 123 deaths Single event
Drought billion-dollar events, 1980 to 2024 32 events, ~$367.5B (2024$) Cumulative
2022 Western and Central drought and heat wave $23.5B (2024$); 136 deaths Largest post-2020 event
2023 Southern and Midwestern drought and heatwave $14.8B (2024$); 247 deaths Single event
All U.S. billion-dollar disasters, 1980 to 2024 403 events, >$2.915T (2024$) Drought ~13% of total

Source: NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters, final 2024 dataset. Note on a common misquote: NOAA’s NIDIS states that drought costs “more than 9.6 billion dollars incurred during each event,” a per-event average, not a per-year figure. The frequently repeated “9 billion dollars per year” is a misstatement of that per-event number. A drought-only annual average derived from the federal record is about 8.2 billion dollars per year (367.5 billion dollars divided by 45 years, 1980 to 2024); this derivation is described in the original synthesis section below.

Agricultural exposure

Drought exposure in agriculture is a geographic overlay: USDA NASS commodity geography intersected with U.S. Drought Monitor polygons. It measures exposure, not realized loss. The figures below are for the week valid June 23, 2026.

Commodity % of U.S. production area in drought
Cotton 58%
Winter wheat 57%
Cattle (inventory in drought areas) 50%
Hay 46%
Spring wheat 25%
Corn 22%
Soybeans 22%

Source: U.S. Agricultural Commodities in Drought, UNL/NDMC for the USDA Office of the Chief Economist, June 23, 2026. Additional verified exposure: 27.1 million head of beef cattle were in drought areas and 2,707 counties had crops in drought (D1 or worse) on June 23, 2026 (NOAA NIDIS Drought.gov). What the numbers mean: wheat, cotton, and cattle were far more drought-exposed than corn and soybeans in mid-2026, reflecting the concentration of drought in the Plains and West rather than the Corn Belt. The severity threshold (D1 versus D2) is not labeled on the commodity tool, so these percentages should be cited as exposure to drought generally, not to a specific severity.

Water supply: the Colorado River and national water use

The Colorado River is the most closely watched drought-stressed water system in the country. In late June 2026, its two largest reservoirs remained far below full.

Reservoir Elevation (late June 2026) % capacity Full pool
Lake Mead (Hoover Dam) ~1,044.9 ft ~28% 1,229 ft (dead pool 895 ft)
Lake Powell (Glen Canyon Dam) ~3,526.6 ft ~24% 3,700 ft (min power pool 3,490 ft)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado daily report and Glen Canyon page, June 2026. The Lower Colorado River Basin (Arizona, Nevada, California, plus Mexico) is under a Tier 1 shortage for the 2026 water year, set by the August 2025 24-Month Study projection that Lake Mead would begin 2026 below 1,075 feet. In May 2023 the three Lower Basin states agreed to conserve at least 3 million acre-feet of system water through the end of 2026, of which 2.3 million acre-feet is compensated through Inflation Reduction Act funding. Reservoir elevations change daily; always pair a percent-capacity figure with the dated elevation, which is unambiguous.

Nationally, the most recent comprehensive USGS estimate (2015) put total U.S. water withdrawals at 322 billion gallons per day, 9 percent below 2010. Thermoelectric power cooling (133 billion gallons per day, much of it returned rather than consumed) and irrigation (118 billion gallons per day) were the two largest categories. Fresh surface water supplied 198 billion gallons per day and fresh groundwater 82.3 billion gallons per day. Source: USGS Circular 1441, Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2015. This remains the latest full survey; cite it as 2015 data.

Long-term climate and drought trends

Two peer-reviewed studies anchor the long-term picture for the Southwest. Williams, Cook, and Smerdon (2022) reconstructed soil moisture from tree rings back to the year 800 and found that 2000 to 2021 was the driest 22-year period in that 1,200-year record, with about 19 percent of the single-year 2021 severity attributable to anthropogenic climate trends. The earlier Williams et al. (2020) study in Science attributed about 47 percent of the 2000 to 2018 drought severity to human-caused warming, with a model interquartile range of 35 to 105 percent. A widely circulated “42 percent” attribution figure does not appear in either paper; it is a press paraphrase and is not used here.

The cleanest long-term trend statistic comes from the U.S. EPA. Its 2024 technical documentation reports that the 1895 to 2020 Palmer Drought Severity Index trend for the six-state Southwest is negative and statistically significant (slope -0.013 units per year, p = 0.002), with Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah all showing significant trends toward drought; Colorado is the lone exception. Over 2000 to 2015, every part of the Southwest was warmer than its 1895 to 2015 average, some areas by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Source: U.S. EPA, Temperature and Drought in the Southwest (2024). What this means: the Southwest shows both a measurable multi-decade trend toward drought and a paleoclimate context establishing the current event as historically extreme.

Original synthesis: three derived insights

The following three insights combine verified federal datasets. Each states its formula, inputs, and limitations. These are HMNDP derivations, labeled as such, not figures lifted from a single source.

1. Drought-only annual loss average, 1980 to 2024

Derivation: 367.5 billion dollars (NCEI drought billion-dollar event total, 1980 to 2024, 2024 dollars) divided by 45 years equals about 8.2 billion dollars per year. Inputs: NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Disasters. Logic: this isolates a drought-only annual average to replace the commonly misquoted “9 billion per year” figure, which actually describes per-event cost. Limitations: it counts only events that individually exceeded 1 billion dollars, so it excludes smaller drought losses and undercounts the true annual total; it also ends at 2024 because the source product was retired.

2. Year-over-year drought expansion, like-for-like

Derivation: people in drought rose from about 71.9 million (June 24, 2025) to 132.1 million (week of June 17 to 23, 2026), an increase of roughly 84 percent year over year. Inputs: NOAA NCEI U.S. Drought Monthly Report (June 2025); NOAA NIDIS Drought.gov (June 2026). Logic: population-in-drought is a single consistent metric across both dates, avoiding the category-mismatch problem that affects area percentages (the 2025 area figure was reported as D1 to D4 while the 2026 headline area figure is D0 to D4). Limitations: population-in-drought counts everyone inside any drought polygon and is not severity-weighted; the comparison is two single-week snapshots, not annual means.

3. Colorado River reservoir depletion index

Derivation: combined Mead plus Powell storage stood at roughly 28 percent and 24 percent of capacity respectively in late June 2026, meaning the system’s two anchor reservoirs were each holding roughly a quarter of their design capacity. Expressed against full pool, Mead was about 184 feet low and Powell about 173 feet low. Inputs: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation daily and weekly reports. Logic: pairing both reservoirs shows system-wide depletion rather than a single-reservoir snapshot. Limitations: percent-of-capacity baselines differ between sources (live versus total capacity, and capacity has been re-surveyed downward over time), so the elevations are the more stable citation; values change daily.

Recommended charts

Charts that should be built from the verified data in this report.

  • U.S. drought extent over time. Data: weekly D1 to D4 percent of contiguous U.S., 2000 to 2026. Source: U.S. Drought Monitor time series. Insight: shows the multi-decade expansion and the 2026 spike. Citation-worthy because it uses the single official federal drought index over its full record.
  • Drought billion-dollar disaster cost by decade. Data: 32 drought events, 1980 to 2024, grouped by decade, 2024 dollars. Source: NOAA NCEI. Insight: tests whether drought losses are rising over time. Citation-worthy because it rests on the authoritative federal loss record.
  • Colorado River reservoir elevation, 2000 to 2026. Data: monthly Lake Mead and Lake Powell elevations. Source: Bureau of Reclamation. Insight: visualizes the megadrought’s effect on stored water against full-pool and dead-pool lines. Citation-worthy as a single image of the West’s water crisis.
  • Commodity drought exposure, June 2026. Data: percent of each commodity area in drought. Source: USDA Office of the Chief Economist commodity tool. Insight: shows wheat, cotton, and cattle bearing the current burden. Citation-worthy for agricultural and commodity reporting.

Methodology

Source selection: this report prioritizes Tier 1 primary sources (federal agencies, official datasets, and peer-reviewed studies) and uses secondary sources only where they reproduce primary data. Every statistic was located in a fetched primary-source page, a downloaded official dataset, or, where explicitly flagged, a search result that reproduced primary figures.

Inclusion and exclusion rules: a statistic was included only if it could be tied to a named source, a date or date range, and a geography. Statistics that could not be verified against a primary source were excluded; the excluded set included a current-week per-category Drought Monitor breakdown that initially failed to load (later pinned directly from the Drought Monitor data service), a circulating “42 percent” climate-attribution figure absent from the cited papers, and an unverified national pasture-condition percentage.

Handling conflicts: where sources disagreed, the report uses the primary federal value and notes the conflict. Examples: crop acres in drought are reported at both 239.5 million (D0 or worse) and 229.4 million (D1 or worse) because the two are different severity thresholds, not a contradiction; the 2012 drought cost is given in both nominal (30.0 billion dollars) and 2024-adjusted (41.7 billion dollars) terms; and the climate-attribution share is scoped to its exact study and period (19 percent for 2021, 47 percent for 2000 to 2018).

Derived estimates: the three figures in the original synthesis section are HMNDP derivations from federal inputs, each shown with its formula and limitations. Data limitations: drought conditions and reservoir levels change continuously and are snapshots as of the stated dates; the NOAA Billion-Dollar Disasters record ends in 2024; and the USGS national water-use estimate is for 2015. Date of last update: June 28, 2026.

Source quality ranking

Tier 1 (primary: government data, official datasets, peer-reviewed): U.S. Drought Monitor (UNL/NDMC); NOAA NIDIS Drought.gov; NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters; U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; USGS Circular 1441; USDA Office of the Chief Economist commodity tool and USDA NASS; U.S. EPA technical documentation; Williams et al. (2020, Science) and Williams, Cook, and Smerdon (2022, Nature Climate Change).

Tier 2 (credible institutional reproductions): NASA GISS publication mirror for the two Williams abstracts; uslakes.info reservoir readings used to corroborate Reclamation elevations.

Tier 3 (expert context only): none used for headline statistics.

Excluded: unsourced roundup pages, AI-generated summaries, the “42 percent” press paraphrase, and any third-party continuation of the retired NCEI product presented as official NOAA data.

Most quotable statistics

  • “52.33 percent of the contiguous United States was in drought on June 23, 2026.” Source: U.S. Drought Monitor, 2026.
  • “132.1 million Americans lived in a drought area in June 2026.” Source: NOAA NIDIS Drought.gov, 2026.
  • “The 2012 drought cost 41.7 billion dollars in 2024 dollars, the costliest U.S. drought on record.” Source: NOAA NCEI.
  • “2000 to 2021 was the driest 22-year period in the Southwest in at least 1,200 years.” Source: Williams, Cook, and Smerdon (2022), Nature Climate Change.
  • “Lake Mead held about 28 percent of capacity in June 2026, roughly 184 feet below full pool.” Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 2026.

Data limitations

  • The U.S. Drought Monitor percentages are single-week snapshots and change every Thursday; the figures here are for the map valid June 23, 2026, contiguous U.S. only.
  • The NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Disasters product was retired May 8, 2025; loss data is authoritative only through calendar year 2024.
  • The USGS national water-use figures are for 2015, the most recent comprehensive survey.
  • Agricultural “in drought” percentages are geographic exposure, not realized crop loss, and their severity threshold is not labeled on the source tool.
  • Reservoir percent-of-capacity values differ by baseline across sources; elevations are the stable citation.
  • Year-over-year area comparisons require matching Drought Monitor categories (D0 to D4 versus D1 to D4) to be valid.

Downloadable dataset: recommended fields

A companion dataset built from this report should include: statistic name; exact value; unit; year or date range; geography; U.S. Drought Monitor category where applicable; source name; source URL; methodology note; limitation flag; and date verified.

Press summary

As of the U.S. Drought Monitor map valid June 23, 2026, 52.33 percent of the contiguous United States was in drought and 132.1 million people lived in a drought area, up sharply from a year earlier. Drought has caused 32 billion-dollar disasters since 1980, totaling about 367.5 billion dollars in 2024 dollars, with the 2012 drought the costliest single event at 41.7 billion dollars. In the Southwest, peer-reviewed research shows 2000 to 2021 was the driest 22-year period in at least 1,200 years, and the Colorado River’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, sat near 28 percent and 24 percent of capacity, keeping the Lower Basin under a Tier 1 shortage for 2026. Every figure is dated, geo-tagged, and linked to a primary federal or peer-reviewed source, with two structural caveats: the federal billion-dollar disaster record ends in 2024, and national water-use data is from 2015.

Suggested headlines

  • More Than Half of the Contiguous U.S. Was in Drought in June 2026
  • 132 Million Americans Lived in a Drought Area This Summer
  • The Southwest Is in Its Driest 22 Years Since the Year 800
  • Drought Has Cost the U.S. 367 Billion Dollars Since 1980
  • Lake Mead and Lake Powell Sit Near a Quarter of Capacity as Shortage Holds

Frequently asked questions

How much of the United States is in drought in 2026?

On the U.S. Drought Monitor map valid June 23, 2026, 52.33 percent of the contiguous United States was in moderate drought or worse (D1 to D4) and 69.95 percent was at least abnormally dry (D0 to D4). Source: U.S. Drought Monitor.

How many people are affected by drought in the U.S.?

About 132.1 million people in the United States lived in a drought area during the week of June 17 to 23, 2026, up from roughly 71.9 million a year earlier. Source: NOAA NIDIS Drought.gov.

What was the most expensive drought in U.S. history?

The 2012 U.S. drought and heat wave is the costliest on record at 41.7 billion dollars in 2024-adjusted dollars (30.0 billion nominal) and 123 deaths. Source: NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Disasters.

How much has drought cost the U.S. since 1980?

Drought caused 32 billion-dollar disasters from 1980 to 2024 totaling about 367.5 billion dollars in 2024 dollars, the second-costliest hazard category after tropical cyclones. Source: NOAA NCEI.

Is the Southwest in a megadrought?

Yes. Peer-reviewed research found 2000 to 2021 was the driest 22-year period in southwestern North America since at least the year 800, about 1,200 years. Source: Williams, Cook, and Smerdon (2022), Nature Climate Change.

How full are Lake Mead and Lake Powell?

In late June 2026 Lake Mead was near 1,044.9 feet (about 28 percent of capacity) and Lake Powell near 3,526.6 feet (about 24 percent). Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

How many people depend on the Colorado River?

The Colorado River supplies 35 to 40 million people across seven basin states, and agriculture uses about 70 percent of its water. Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

How much U.S. water goes to irrigation?

Irrigation accounted for 118 billion gallons per day in 2015, about 37 percent of total U.S. withdrawals of 322 billion gallons per day. Source: USGS Circular 1441.

Is U.S. drought getting worse over time?

In the six-state Southwest, the 1895 to 2020 Palmer Drought Severity Index shows a statistically significant trend toward drought (p = 0.002) in five of six states. Source: U.S. EPA, 2024.

Why did NOAA stop tracking billion-dollar disasters?

NOAA retired the Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters product on May 8, 2025, citing evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes. Its 1980 to 2024 data remains archived and authoritative. Source: NOAA NESDIS.

How to cite this report


APA: HMNDP Landscaping. (2026). 2026 America's Drought Report. https://hmndp.org/research/2026-americas-drought-report/

Chicago: HMNDP Landscaping. "2026 America's Drought Report." 2026. https://hmndp.org/research/2026-americas-drought-report/

MLA: "HMNDP Landscaping. 2026 America's Drought Report." HMNDP Landscaping, 2026, https://hmndp.org/research/2026-americas-drought-report/.

Sources and references

  • U.S. Drought Monitor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln / National Drought Mitigation Center. https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
  • NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System, Drought.gov. https://www.drought.gov/current-conditions
  • NOAA NCEI, Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/
  • NOAA NESDIS, 2025 Notice of Changes (Billion-Dollar Disasters retirement). https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/about/documents-reports/notice-of-changes/2025-notice-of-changes/billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters
  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado daily report. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/hourly/levels.html
  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Colorado River Basin. https://www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin/
  • U.S. Department of the Interior, 2023 Lower Basin conservation announcement. https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-historic-consensus-system-conservation-proposal
  • Dieter, C.A., et al. (2018). Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2015. USGS Circular 1441. https://www.usgs.gov/publications/estimated-use-water-united-states-2015
  • USDA Office of the Chief Economist / UNL-NDMC, U.S. Agricultural Commodities in Drought. https://agindrought.unl.edu/
  • Williams, A.P., Cook, B.I., Smerdon, J.E. (2022). Rapid intensification of the emerging southwestern North American megadrought in 2020-2021. Nature Climate Change 12(3), 232-234. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01290-z
  • Williams, A.P., et al. (2020). Large contribution from anthropogenic warming to an emerging North American megadrought. Science 368(6488), 314-318. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaz9600
  • U.S. EPA, Technical Documentation: Temperature and Drought in the Southwest (2024). https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-06/southwest_documentation.pdf