DES MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa drought conditions are expanding.
The new National Drought Monitor Map shows a new area of extreme drought covering nine counties in Southeast Iowa--that's in addition to extreme drought that's covered parts of Northwest Iowa for months.
The new map shows more than 67 percent of the state under abnormally dry conditions, with actual drought across more than 40 percent of the state.
Right now 32 percent of Iowa--mostly in the eastern and northeast parts of the state--are drought free.
Map image from the National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln