Drought in the Midwest

The drought gripping the Midwest and about 80% of the country is the most widespread since 1956, stoking massive wildfires and decimating the nation’s breadbasket crops, according to new reports this month by the National Climactic Data Center. Drought conditions led the Department of Agriculture to recently declare natural disasters in more than 1,000 counties in 26 states. This was supposed to be a banner year for the U.S. corn crop, the largest in the world.

An empty dock at parched Morse Reservoir.  (Michael Conroy / Associated Press)

Farmer Dave Kestel checks the progress of a corn field battered by the heat and a lack of rain in Manhattan, Ill.  (Scott Strazzante / Chicago Tribune)

What’s left of corn stalks in Farmingdale, Ill.  (Seth Perlman / Associated Press)

Dan Millsap of Naperville, Ill., golfs on a parched course.  (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)