Parts of 49 States Are Either in Drought or Abnormally Dry

Brian Donegan
Published: August 1,2016

U.S. Drought Monitor as of July 26,2016. Areas of progressively worse drought are shown by the darker brown contours. "Abnormally dry" areas are shown in yellow.

It has been very dry across much of the nation this summer – so dry, in fact, that parts of all but one state are either in a drought or at least abnormally dry. The only holdout is Delaware.
In late April and early May, 25 to 30 percent of Delaware was classified as abnormally dry.
However, a rainy pattern set up beginning April 26, which gradually put an end to the dry spell. There were 12 consecutive days with at least of a trace of rain between April 26 and May 7 in Wilmington, which picked up 2.85 inches of rain in that 12-day period. The unsettled pattern persisted through much of May across the state and lead to occasional showers and thunderstorms.
(MORE: Extended Forecast for Late Summer and Early Fall)
The rainy spring has allowed Delaware to escape the abnormally dry classification in the U.S. Drought Monitor so far. In fact, since Jan. 1, Wilmington is 2.04 inches of precipitation above normal, as of July 30. Since June 1, it is 1.43 inches above normal, as of July 30.
While there are large portions of other states not in a drought or abnormally dry, there is at least a small percentage of each state in one of those categories.
(MORE: Three New Drought Areas You May Not Have Heard About)
For example, 0.01 percent of Kentucky is being classified as abnormally dry, which means 99.99 percent is not. However, it's still a tiny portion of that state.
Minnesota is another state with only a small portion of it abnormally dry: 1.31 percent. This means 98.69 percent of the state is not, but it still needs to be included in the list of 49 states.