Where Is the US in Drought?
Every state by drought category, from the weekly US Drought Monitor. Week of 20 October 2026 to 26 October 2026.
Shading follows each state’s Drought Severity and Coverage Index — the five category percentages added together, 0 to 500 — so a state that is broadly dry ranks differently from one with a small patch of catastrophe. Hover a state for its figures.
Driest states
Ranked by severity and coverage together. Percentages are cumulative — “or worse” — so they do not sum to 100.
- 1ArkansasExceptional drought present · 19.43% exceptional383DSCI
- 2LouisianaExceptional drought present · 2.20% exceptional305DSCI
- 3OklahomaExceptional drought present · 7.16% exceptional296DSCI
- 4UtahExtreme drought present · active fires267DSCI
- 5OregonExtreme drought present · active fires265DSCI
- 6NevadaExceptional drought present · 0.73% exceptional · active fires256DSCI
- 7WyomingExtreme drought present · active fires256DSCI
- 8MississippiExceptional drought present · 3.07% exceptional255DSCI
- 9MaineExtreme drought present255DSCI
- 10IdahoExceptional drought present · 6.72% exceptional · active fires231DSCI
How to read this
The US Drought Monitor is published every Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with NOAA and the US Department of Agriculture. It is not a single measurement but a weekly judgement that combines rainfall, soil moisture, streamflow, reservoir levels and reports from local observers.
The five categories run D0 abnormally dry through D4 exceptional drought, and they are cumulative: a state at 40% D1 has 40% of its area in moderate drought or worse. That is why the numbers on this page do not add to 100.
This is a national overview, not a local forecast or a water-restriction notice. For either, follow your state agency and local utility.