National Climatic Data Center, 17 June 2002

U.S. Drought Highlights:

• On the national scale, severe drought affected about 29 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of May 2002, which is a jump of almost 7 percent compared to the end of April
• Much of the western U.S. continued to suffer from drought, with the moisture deficits most pronounced from the northern and central Rockies to the Southwest
• Another month of beneficial rains helped ease the drought in the Northeast, but parts of the Southeast continued very dry
• Conditions continued very dry over parts of the Great Plains

Contents Of This Report:

• National Overview
• Regional Drought Watch
• Palmer Drought Indices*
• Standardized Precipitation Index*
• Regional Precipitation Ranks*
• Statewide Precipitation Ranks*
• Weekly Drought Monitoring Tools*

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