Courtesy Photo­Image

Courtesy Photo­Image Drought monitor map. Red is extreme drought. Dark red is exceptional.

Courtesy Photo­Image Drought monitor, Nebraska

It's official: Part of central Nebraska now is experiencing the state's first exceptional drought – the most intense level – in eight years, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.

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The drought mitigation center is headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It reported findings in this week's U.S. Drought Monitor -- a weekly report on drought conditions – on Thursday.

"The extreme drought in the central part of the state last week was intensified to exceptional on this map, and there was a broad intensification from severe to extreme drought in the state," said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist and U.S. Drought Monitor author.

Fuchs said the intense drought has come on fairly quickly.

"In eight weeks, we went from being in fairly good condition to having the whole state in severe drought or worse," he said.

With July nearly over, North Platte has received less than a half inch of rain in this month. On average, the high temperature has reached 98 degrees daily. Temperatures climbed into triple digits on 13 days and 95 or above on 21 days, according to the national weather service.

June was slightly cooler but the average high was 92 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in North Platte.

During June-July, only 1.3 inches of rainfall – 4.6 inches less than normal rainfall.

More hot weather is in the forecast. It will be 100 degrees or hotter Saturday and Sunday. Highs will be in the upper 90s from Monday-Saturday.

Nebraska is not alone. The area of the country that is in moderate or worse drought is the largest ever during the last 12 years that the drought monitor has been kept.

This week's map shows 53.44 percent of the United States and Puerto Rico in moderate drought or worse.

"We've seen tremendous intensification of drought through Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska, and into part of Wyoming and South Dakota in the last week," Fuchs said. "The amount of D3 (extreme drought) developing in the country has increased quite a bit for each of the last several weeks."

As of this week, every state in the country had at least a small area classified as abnormally dry or worse.

"This drought is two-pronged," Fuchs said. "Not only the dryness but the heat is playing a big and important role.

“Even areas that have picked up rain are still suffering because of the heat,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service this week reported that almost 40 percent of the country's agricultural land is in severe or worse drought. It is affecting 62 percent of farms, and about 88 percent of the corn crop and 73 percent of cattle areas.