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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC) website is showing record-breaking drought across the U.S. More than 133 million people live in areas that are currently impacted. The persistent drought conditions are having a strong effect in 17 states. 

NOAA’s National Weather Service defines drought as “A deficiency of moisture that results in adverse impacts on people, animals, or vegetation over a sizeable area.”

Severe drought covers more than 70% of Arkansas and nearly 40% of Missouri. California and Nevada are both hard-hit states. And Texas, Oklahoma, and the central states are also experiencing record-low precipitation.

The website forecasts that between October 20, 2022, and January 31, 2023, it is expected to be dry due to the below-average rainfall continuing to be an issue.

The lack of rain paired with an unusually hot summer shows the Earth's warming trend.  September 2022 ties in with September 2021 as the fifth-warmest September in 143 years.

The tropics also heated up, with an above-average number of tropical storms spinning into the ocean. According to scientists at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) issues a monthly Seasonal Drought Outlook on the third Thursday of each month. The Outlook predicts whether the different levels of drought will get worse, stay the same, or get better within the next three months.

Climate Prediction Center data

This year La Niña returns for the third winter in a row. And storm system will continue to drive warmer-than-average temperatures in the Southwest, the Gulf Coast, and along the Eastern seaboard.

One of the impacts of a drought area is drastically low water levels.  

Due to shifting climate change water supplies for communities and ecosystems are being reduced. 

According to the Climate Prediction Center, large regions throughout North America are “experiencing decreases in annual rainfall, shifts in the seasonality of precipitation, and an increased frequency of extreme precipitation events.”

According to Jon Gottschalck, chief of, the Operational Prediction Branch, or NOAA’s CPC, “Drought conditions are now present across approximately 59% of the country, but parts of the Western U.S and southern Great Plains will continue to be the hardest hit this winter. With the La Niña climate pattern still in place, drought conditions may also expand to the Gulf Coast.”