Mainly on the Plains

The map above charts rainfall patterns for the first 8 months of the year. As most of you are no doubt aware, the Southeast is drought-stricken, as is much of the rest of the country. Less appreciated perhaps is the fact that it was a wetter-than-usual year in the Great Plains. As this NASA Earth Observatory item so aptly puts it:

"It is as if the United States were folded in half, and all of the rain ran towards the crease in the center, leaving the edges dry."