Dive Summary:
- The drought that has plagued much of the U.S. interior is not getting any better, says a new report by The U.S. Drought Monitor.
- As of last month, at least 60% of arable land in the lower 48 states was experiencing some level of drought, with Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma the hardest hit.
- As the drought lingers into the winter months, analysts and farmers alike are worried about Kansas's winter wheat crop this year, the largest in North America.
From the article:
ST. LOUIS (AP) â The worst U.S. drought in decades got worse in parts of the nation's midsection, further frustrating ranchers and growers of winter wheat in Kansas and Oklahoma, a drought-tracking consortium's update showed Thursday.The U.S. Drought Monitor's latest map showed that 60 percent of the land in the lower 48 states was experiencing some degree of drought as of Tuesday, down less than a percentage point from the previous week. Nearly one-fifth of the contiguous U.S. remained in extreme or exceptional drought, the two worst classifications.But the stubbornly dry conditions inte...
