Dust Bowl 2006? More Than 60 Percent of U.S. in Drought

More than 60 percent of the United States is in drought or experiencing abnormally dry conditions, according to Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, who said the drought stretches from Georgia to Arizona and north as far as Wisconsin, Minnesota and Montana.
_{Photo by Scott Liddell}

• What is Drought?
• What are the Effects of Drought?

The Dakotas are the worst-hit, where weeks of unbroken 100-degree days have scorched crops and dried up ponds and streams, leaving dry alkali dust free to be picked up and blown by the wind, a phenomenon that hasn’t been seen in the area since giant dust storms swept the Midwest during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Hundreds of acres of range and farmland have been burned by wildfires, and some ranchers have been forced to sell their herds, move them to greener pastures, or buy expensive feed to keep the animals alive.

Brad Rippey, a U.S. Agriculture Department meteorologist in Washington, DC, told the Associated Press that the drought this year is a continuation of one that started in the late 1990s.

"The 1999 to 2006 drought ranks only behind the 1930s and the 1950s. It's the third-worst drought on record—period," Rippey said.

The unusually dry weather and high heat are not only hurting farmers and ranchers directly, but also undermining the economy of entire communities.

Susie White, who runs the Lone Steer motel and restaurant in Steele, North Dakota, a town of about 760 people, told the AP that even out-of-state travelers have been noticing the effects of the drought on local farms and ranches.

"Even I never paid attention to the crops around here. But I notice them now because they're not there," she said. "We're all wondering how we're going to stay alive this winter if the farmers don't make any money this summer."