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The dryness of August was a continuation of very dry conditions from July in some areas and for the entire summer in other areas. Long-term moisture deficits persisted across parts of the Great Lakes to Great Plains, northern Maine, and much of the West.

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Some regional highlights:

• New Mexico had its driest July-August, Washington its driest June-August, and Iowa and Minnesota their second driest August, in 2003, based on statewide records going back to 1895
• record heat occurred at many stations in the West and Great Plains
• according to August 31 reports from the USDA,
  • 40% or more of the pasture and range land was classified in "poor" or "very poor" condition for all but five states west of the Mississippi River, with conditions significantly deteriorating over the last four weeks
    • 65% or more of the pasture and range land was classified in "poor" or "very poor" condition for Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wisconsin
  • 55% or more of the topsoils were classified in "poor" or "very poor" ("short" or "very short") condition for all but one of the reporting states from the Great Lakes to Texas then westward to the Pacific coast
    • Montana, Iowa, and Nebraska had 90% or more of the topsoils in "poor" or "very poor" condition
• end-of-August reservoir storage for all of the reporting western states averaged below the long-term mean percent of capacity for this time of year
• as noted by the National Interagency Fire Center, about four dozen significant wildfires continued to burn across the northern Plains and western states at the beginning of September

• Palmer Drought Indices,
• Standardized Precipitation Index,
• airport station percent of normal precipitation maps,
• statewide precipitation rank maps,
• Cooperative station percent of normal precipitation maps,
• satellite-based observations of vegetative health,
• satellite-based observations of surface moisture,
• National Weather Service model calculations of
  • soil moisture,
  • runoff,
  • evaporation,
• Midwest Regional Climate Center model calculations of soil moisture,
• percent of average maps for the SNOTEL stations in the western mountains provided by the Western Regional Climate Center
  • hydrologic year precipitation,
• streamflow maps maintained by the USGS.

A detailed review of drought conditions is available for the following regions and states:

• Northwest region
• Southwest region
• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Idaho
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• Oregon
• Utah
• Washington
• Wyoming

• West North Central region
• East North Central region
• Illinois
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• South Dakota
• Texas
• Wisconsin

• Maine

A review of drought conditions as compared to the pre-instrumental period using paleoclimatic data is available for the following:

• northern Rockies
• central Plains

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Colorado - Delaware - Delaware River Basin (DE-NJ-NY-PA) - Florida Panhandle - Georgia - Hawaii - Idaho - Kentucky - Maine - Maryland - Missouri-1 - Missouri-2 - Montana-1 - Montana-2 - Nebraska - New Jersey-1 - New Jersey-2 - New Jersey-3 - New Mexico - North Carolina - Oklahoma-1 - Oklahoma-2 - Oklahoma-3 - Oregon - Pennsylvania-1 - Pennsylvania-2 - Pennsylvania-3 - South Carolina - Texas - Vermont - Virginia - Washington - Wyoming

For additional information on current and past wildfire seasons please see the National Interagency Fire Center web site or the U.S. Forest Service Fire and Aviation web site.

NCDC's Drought Recovery Page shows the precipitation required to end or ameliorate droughts and the probability of receiving the required precipitation.

Additional climate monitoring graphics can be found at the Climate Prediction Center's monitoring pages:

• Weekly, Monthly, 3-Month, 12-Month Monitoring
• El Nino, Drought, Snow Cover, and Degree Day Monitoring
• Weekly Drought Monitoring
• Soil Moisture Monitoring

Precipitation and modeled soil moisture anomaly maps for the Midwest U.S. can be found at the Midwest Regional Climate Center's monitoring page.

Drought conditions on the Canadian prairies can be found at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Drought Watch page.