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Higher Heat and Midwest Drought Are Forecast for US Summer

  • Drought could expand up the Mississippi River into Midwest
  • Texas may rival some of its driest and hottest summers
A water treatment operator looks at a construction site near Rawlins, Wyoming, on June 3.

A water treatment operator looks at a construction site near Rawlins, Wyoming, on June 3.

Photographer: Natalie Behring/Getty Images

Higher-than-normal heat is forecast to blanket most of the US from July to September, drying out large chunks of the Great Plains and the Midwest while threatening to push drought into the Mississippi River Valley.

A swath of land from Wyoming and Montana southeast to Kansas, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle will likely be the driest while Arizona and the East Coast could see more rain than normal, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday in a media call. New England and Utah face the highest risks for above normal temperatures, while the forecast is unclear for the Pacific Northwest and parts of the northern Great Plains.