LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) -- A third of Arkansas is covered by "exceptional drought," the most intense category of dryness, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor map issued Thursday.
Exceptional drought covered 33.64 of the state, up from last week's 11 percent. Much of the area expanded from the Arkansas River Valley in to north-central and through the Ouachita mountains into southwest Arkansas, including all of Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Pope, Perry, Newton, Searcy, Stone, Van Buren, and White counties and parts of Baxter, Boone, Carroll, Clark, Grant, Hot Spring, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Johnson, Logan, Lonoke, Madison, Marion, Montgomery, Prairie, Pike, Polk, Pulaski, Saline, Sevier, Woodruff and Yell counties. In far northeastern Arkansas, most of Clay and parts of Greene counties were also added to the exceptional drought category.
