2020–2023 North American drought

A drought developed in the Western, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States in the summer of 2020. Similar conditions started in other states in August 2020, including Iowa, Nebraska and certain parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. At the same time, more than 90% of Utah, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico were in some level of drought. Also in drought conditions were Wyoming, Oregon and Arizona.

2020–23 North American drought
Animation of US drought map 2020–2023
2020 Western U.S. wildfires
Multiple wildfires burning near the Pacific coast of the U.S. on September 9, 2020
Affected states
Background
Largest wildfire by state
  • Arizona - Bush (193,455 acres)
  • California - August Complex (1,032,648 acres)
  • Colorado - Cameron Peak (208,913 acres)
  • Nevada - Meadow Valley (59,265 acres)
  • New Mexico - Cub (25,950 acres)
  • Oregon - Santiam (402,274 acres)
  • Utah - East Fork (89,765 acres)
  • Washington - Pearl Hill (223,730 acres)

Over the course of 2021, conditions improved in the Northeast but worsened in the Western United States. As of June 2021, "nearly the entire region (97 percent) [was] facing abnormally dry conditions." Drought also affected a wide area of Mexico in 2021, as well as the prairies of Canada.

The drought conditions of 2020 were associated with a moderate La Niña episode that had developed in the Pacific Ocean.

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