America's worst drought in decades: By the numbers

It's been an abysmally dry and scorching summer so far, triggering comparisons to the 1930s Dust Bowl. Here, a look at just how bad it's been

A corn plant struggles to survive in a drought-stricken Illinois field: 38 percent of U.S. corn crops are in dire shape due to the season's severe heat.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

If you've felt like this summer has been spitefully torturing you with dry heat, it's not in your head: The National Climatic Data Center said this week that more than half of the U.S. spent June in a moderate or extreme drought, the widest incidence of drought in half a century. The heat and lack of rain are wreaking havoc on crops in the Midwest, forests in the West, and households across big stretches of the Great Plains, Midwest, and the Eastern seaboard. Here, a drily statistical look at our long, hot summer:

54.6

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