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Future U.S. Weather Past U.S Weather Morning Dom. Report Noon Update Evening/Weekend Update International Report Gary Rhea Commentary INTERNATIONAL MAPS InterRAD® RainRAD™ Thursday, September 4, 2025 - The late summer is typically the driest part of the season and a drier trend in recent weeks has led to increasing drought across the nation. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, released early this morning, showed nearly a 6% increase in drought since last week and is up to 57.6% of the country too dry as of Tuesday. The High Plains regon bucked the national trend and saw a decrease in drought areas since last week and by 1.6% to 42.2% in a dry category. The South Central region gained 4.7% in drought areas over the past week and is up to 43.8%. The Southeast saw a 17.5% uptick in dry areas since last week and is up to 27.9% too dry. The Midwest also had a similar increase in drought and is at 47.3% in a drought zone. In key Midwest states, Iowa's streak of being drought free is over after 4 weeks, but only 4.1% of the state is too dry, still much better than states furthr east. Illinois spiked up to nearly 64% after about a 34% increase. Indiana had an even larger increase in drougnt and by almost 50% to over 76%.