Puerto Rico entered what should have been its wet season in May 2026 and instead watched drought conditions spread rapidly across the territory over the following months.
By August 25, three-quarters of Puerto Rico was experiencing at least moderate drought, according to Science Daily, citing data from the NASA Earth Observatory. Extreme drought, shown in dark orange on the U.S. Drought Monitor maps, had expanded in both the eastern and southwestern parts of the main island and covered 44 percent of the territory.
The speed of the change was notable. Just three months earlier, none of Puerto Rico had been classified as being in drought at all. Less than 20 percent of the territory was even considered abnormally dry at that point. Late winter and early spring had actually been wetter than normal across the island.
The drought has had direct consequences for residents, farmers, and ranchers. Water shortages forced rationing in some communities. Farmers lost crops. Ranchers ran low on hay. Some areas received less than 20 percent of their usual rainfall for the period.
Puerto Rico's governor declared a state of emergency in late July. The U.S. government followed with a drought disaster declaration covering more than two dozen cities and towns in late August.
David Mocko, a senior research scientist in the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said the effects of the dry and hot conditions showed up across multiple data sources. For Puerto Rico, he noted that satellite estimates of soil moisture were especially important, alongside weather measurements and observations of streamflow and well conditions.
Mocko prepared the U.S. Drought Monitor update for August 18, 2026. He and Jonathan Case of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center became the first NASA scientists to produce the weekly drought assessment maps, a role that expanded as the agency increased its involvement with the Drought Monitor project in 2026.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is a collaboration involving the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA. The program produces weekly maps used by government agencies, emergency managers, and the public to track drought severity and geographic spread.
