The latest US Drought Monitor report, released May 28, 2026, shows a modest improvement in drought conditions across the country. As of this week, 50.77% of the area covering all 50 states and Puerto Rico remains in moderate drought or worse, down from 52.15% the previous week. The number of people living in drought-affected areas also dropped, from 158.2 million to approximately 152.7 million.
A highly variable weather pattern drove wide temperature swings across much of the lower 48 states throughout the week. Unusually cold temperatures that settled over the plains early in the week pushed eastward, bringing a rapid and stormy end to the heat wave that had gripped the eastern seaboard. Meanwhile, the western states experienced well above normal temperatures early in the week before cooling down by week’s end.
By midweek, warmer than normal conditions had returned to the plains, with daily high temperatures climbing into the upper 90s in some locations. Strong temperature gradients across the nation, combined with ample Gulf moisture moving northward, produced widespread heavy and persistent rainfall. Many locations from eastern Texas and Oklahoma northeast through the Mid-Atlantic states received more than two inches of precipitation, with isolated areas recording six inches or more.
Across the northern plains, lighter rainfall accompanied warming daily temperatures. The upper Mississippi Valley and western Corn Belt stayed mostly dry. West of the Rockies, conditions were also predominantly dry, though a strong cold front brought showers to much of the Northwest by week’s end.
Drought conditions worsened in parts of the Midwest but improved in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Missouri. Ohio and Kentucky saw notable two-category improvements. Alaska also recorded an area of improvement.
The US Drought Monitor is published each Thursday through a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, the USDA, NOAA, and NASA.
