National Climatic Data Center, 16 August 2004

U.S. Drought Highlights:

• On the national scale, severe to extreme drought affected about 20 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of July 2004.
  • Moderate to extreme drought affected about 33 percent of the contiguous U.S.
• Nationally, the contiguous U.S. was wetter than normal due to heavy rains that fell across the southern and central Plains into the Northeast.
• July was dry across much of the West and parts of the Southeast and Alaska.
• Long-term moisture deficits (last 6 to 24 to 60 months) persisted across Maine, parts of the Great Plains, Midwest, and Southeast, and most of the West.

Contents Of This Report:

• National Overview
• Regional Drought Watch
• Palmer Drought Indices*
• Standardized Precipitation Index*
• Regional Precipitation Ranks*
• Weekly Drought Monitoring Tools*
• State/Regional Moisture Status*

  * From these pages, click on the
  Back button to return to this page.

Climate Services Division
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4876
phone: 828-271-4800
email: ncdc.info@noaa.gov

Richard Heim
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: Richard.Heim@noaa.gov