The U.S. Drought Monitor shows extremely dry conditions extending from North Dakota southward to Texas and westward to California.  Drought now covers more than 10 percent of the nation with 60 percent of acreage showing some level of dryness.  Only eight percent of Texas is drought-free with nine percent in the exceptional drought category.

Research conducted by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has demonstrated a long-term pattern of increased temperature accompanied by decreased and more variable precipitation over the period 1976 through 2019.  The western U.S. is becoming hotter and drier with less predictable patterns of annual precipitation.