Percent of U.S. western land area experiencing drought, 2000-22

This figure uses data from the U.S. Drought monitor to characterize the percentage of Western land area experiencing differing levels of drought severity between January of 2000 and July of 2022. The data demonstrate that during the summer of 2021 more than 75 percent of U.S. Western land area experienced severe or worse drought conditions. The drought of the summer of 2021 affected the largest percentage of western land area since collection of these data began in 2000.

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