NOAA: The US Just Had Its Second-Warmest Spring on Record — With Drought Gripping Half the Country

So NOAA dropped its spring climate report on June 8th, and honestly, the numbers are hard to wrap your head around. The short version: this past spring — March through May 2026 — was the second-hottest spring the U.S. has ever recorded, going all the way back to 1895. The only spring that beats it is 2012. And drought? More than half the country is parched right now.

Let's break down what happened.

March kicked things off with a bang — and not in a good way. It was the single warmest March ever recorded for the contiguous United States, running about 9.4°F above the 20th-century average. That's not a rounding error — that's extraordinary. Then April came in as the third-warmest April on record. May cooled off a bit relatively speaking (it ranked 28th warmest), but by then the damage was already baked in. Put it all together and you get a spring that averaged 55.79°F nationally — more than 1.5°F warmer than any other spring except 2012, which hit 56.17°F. If you live in Arizona, Colorado, Texas, or New Mexico, your spring wasn't just the second warmest — it was the hottest ever recorded for your state. And 38 out of 48 contiguous states saw a top-five warmest spring.

Now here's where it gets personal: the drought. As of late May, about 61% of the Lower 48 states are under some form of drought. That means water restrictions, stressed crops, dried-up reservoirs, and elevated wildfire risk are not abstract problems — they're unfolding right now across huge swaths of the country.

The drought story has been building since last fall. Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina saw record-dry conditions from September 2025 through March 2026 — records that stretch back to 1895. In the Southern Plains, 89% of Texas and 99% of Oklahoma were in drought as of March 31st. Some Texas farmers have already ceased operations entirely. The Southern Plains has been in continuous drought for six straight years.

Out West, the snowpack situation is brutal. Much of the mountainous West hit its lowest snowpack levels in 40 years this winter, and that snow melted off weeks earlier than normal due to the record heat. Less snowpack means less water flowing into rivers and reservoirs through summer. Reservoirs in South Texas hit their lowest levels on record. Along the Rio Grande, Elephant Butte Reservoir sat at just 12.6% capacity.

For the average person, this translates to a few real concerns. Food prices: wheat crops are severely stressed — conditions rated 'poor to very poor' rose sharply, signaling a potential shortfall in the 2026 harvest that commodity markets are already pricing in. Water bills and restrictions: if you're in the Southwest, Plains, or Southeast, your utility district is watching usage closely. Wildfires: over 1.6 million acres burned by early April — more than double the 10-year average — and fire season is just getting started.

There is one potential silver lining on the horizon. El Niño — a natural climate pattern where warmer-than-average Pacific Ocean temperatures shift weather worldwide — appears to be developing. NOAA puts the odds of it reaching 'strong' or 'very strong' levels at over 60%. Historically, that brings wetter winters to parts of the Southwest and Southern Plains. But researchers at the University of Colorado caution that even a very wet year would only delay the worst long-term water problems by about two years. The math on Western water use simply doesn't add up, wet year or not.

Bottom line: this isn't a story about one bad season. Three of the ten worst drought months in U.S. history since 1895 have now occurred in 2026 alone — the other seven were all during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. That comparison should stop you in your tracks.