 National Overview
On the national scale,
- severe drought affected about 21 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of February 2002;
- the coverage of the current (November 1999-present) drought peaked in August 2000 at about 36% of the contiguous U.S., which was as extensive as the major droughts of the last 40 years, but not as large as the "dust bowl" droughts of the 1930's and 1950's;
- the total drought area decreased to about 10 percent by November 2000, but has shown a general increasing trend for much of the period since then (see graph below left);
- on a broad scale, the last two decades were characterized by unusual wetness with short periods of extensive droughts, whereas the 1930's and 1950's were characterized by prolonged periods of extensive droughts with little wetness (see graph below right);
- although different parts of the U.S. have experienced unusually wet conditions during the last 28 months, little change occurred in the overall national wetness picture during much of this period;
- the percentage of the nation severely wet has held steady at about three to eleven percent during this period, only recently falling below one percent (see graph below left);
- a file containing the national monthly percent area severely dry and wet from 1900 to present is available;
- historical temperature, precipitation, and Palmer drought data from 1895 to present for climate divisions, states, and regions in the contiguous U.S. are available at the Climate Division: Temperature-Precipitation-Drought Data page.
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| Although some areas of the U.S. had above normal precipitation, many areas were very dry. February averaged much drier than normal when precipitation is integrated across the nation. Twelve of the last 30 months have averaged well below the normal, while only three averaged well above normal (see graph to right). National 2001-2002 precipitation ranks:
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For all climate questions other than questions concerning this report, please contact the National Climatic Data Center's Climate Services Division:
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
For further information on the historical climate perspective presented in this report, contact:
Richard Heim
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: Richard.Heim@noaa.gov
-or-
Jay Lawrimore
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: Jay.Lawrimore@noaa.gov
 NCDC / Climate Monitoring / Climate of 2002 / February / Search / Help
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