United States drought map released by U.S. Drought Monitor on May 7, 2026. The Drought Monitor focuses on broad-scale conditions. Local conditions may vary. Credit: National Drought Mitigation Center. More than 60% of the United States is experiencing drought conditions, with more than 20% in an extreme drought. Andrew Ellis, a climatologist at Virginia Tech said the current conditions are among the worst in decades because the combination of intensity and aerial coverage is rare. He explained why, who is most impacted, and when we can expect relief. The cause: An atypical La Niña According to Ellis, the La Niña condition, or cooling of the western equatorial Pacific Ocean, this past fall and winter brought the dryness across the southern tier of the United States. While dryness from the West spreads through the southern Great Plains and into the Southeast in La Niña years, Ellis noted this specific event was atypical because the Pacific Northwest remained so dry.…