Following is the text of the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor as released by the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska:

The discussion in the Looking Ahead section is simply a description of what the official national guidance from the National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction is depicting for current areas of dryness and drought. The NWS forecast products utilized include the HPC 5-day QPF and 5-day Mean Temperature progs, the 6-10 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, and the 8-14 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, valid as of late Wednesday afternoon of the USDM release week. The NWS forecast web page used for this section is: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/forecasts/./

Summary: Exceptional drought continues its hold on the southern states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and neighboring states. Recent extreme high temperatures have combined with below average precipitation over the last few weeks to create drought impacts in the Corn Belt states of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.

Northeast and Mid-Atlantic: An area of abnormally dry conditions is expanded in the states of Vermont and New Hampshire. Over the last 30 days, rainfall totals of one to five inches below average have been reported across much of the northern tier […]