Americans told to flush toilets less as 48 states are put under drought warnings after driest spell in decades

The US is currently suffering its worst drought in 25 years that has impacted all but two states.

Roughly 257 million Americans are living under a severe drought warning as drier and warmer conditions overtook the nation last month, leaving only Alaska and Kentucky unaffected.

Several states have asked residents to cut their water consumption by reducing shower times, not watering their lawns and flushing the toilet less to conserve resources and the situation was so severe in Pennsylvania it led to a lake drying up and revealed the remnants of a 200-year-old bridge .

The worst-hit areas include Texas, Ohio , West Virginia , Wyoming, Montana and Missouri - all of which are facing extreme or exceptional drought conditions after not seeing rainfall since September.

Red alerts have been issued across the US as 14 large wildfires have burned through more than 486,000 acres in 10 states including Oklahoma, Texas and Massachusetts.

Alaska and Kentucky have experienced drier conditions, but temperatures in Alaska have remained cooler than average, allowing it to escape a moderate drought while a cold front brought rain to Kentucky on Thursday.

Water conservation efforts were implemented in states across the US like Colorado and Hawaii , while those in Pennsylvania have been asked to reduce their water consumption by 10 to 15 percent, amounting to 11 to 16 gallons per day.

This comes as the drought covered just 12 percent of the US in June but as of November, that number has risen to 87 percent.

This was caused by a strong ridge of pressure that hovers high in the atmosphere for weeks on end, preventing precipitation from entering the region.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has described the event as a 'flash drought' which is brought on by lower-than-normal precipitation, abnormally high temperatures and heavy winds.

'Although droughts usually develop slowly over the course of months and years, a flash drought rapidly intensifies over the course of a few weeks to a couple of months,' said Caily Schwartz, a scientist at the Global Water Security Center at the University of Alabama .

According to the Southeast Regional Climate Center, at least 100 weather stations throughout the US recorded no rain for the entire month of October.

The drought is plaguing major cities like Philadelphia, Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Sacramento.

This is true even in states like North Carolina and Georgia which were battered by Hurricane Helene and experienced 15 feet of flooding in late September.

NASA 's Earth Observatory reported that many places impacted by the hurricane rapidly dried out and haven't seen any precipitation since the natural disaster.

An extreme drought, also called a D3, can disrupt crop and livestock production, increase the intensity and severity of wildfires and cause disease outbreaks like typhoid and cholera if people drink contaminated water.

Exceptional droughts, called D4s, are the most severe because in addition to having the same impact as a D3 it can cause widespread crop failure, extreme water shortages and potential ecological devastation.

Impacted areas also include New York City where Mayor Eric Adams urged residents on Saturday to conserve every drop of water possible by reducing the number of times they flush the toilet, taking shorter showers and not letting the water run while brushing their teeth.

The warning stems from reservoirs in upstate New York that are used by the city and are now less than two-thirds full, down from their usual three-quarter levels at this time of year.

The cotton industry has also been widely impacted by the droughts and is projected to produce the second lowest crop in a decade.

This has primarily impacted Texas - which is the largest producer of cotton nationwide.

There, farmers are only expected to produce 2.1 million acres of cotton this year, down from 5.5 million acres in 2022.

Arkansas was likewise impacted, damaging much of the wheat their cattle need for grazing.

'This fall has been a prime example of flash drought across parts of the US,' said Jason Otkin, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

'These events can take people by surprise because you can quickly go from being drought-free to having severe drought conditions.'

Wildfires have already sprung up across the country, including New Jersey where firefighters battled two events last weekend.

One fire consumed over 200 acres of land in Rockaway Township, forcing helicopters to drop hundreds of gallons of water to try to put out the blaze.

A second fire in Downe, New Jersey broke out on Thursday and overtook 120 acres of land.

National Weather Service forecasters have also warned states across the northeast including Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts about elevated fire conditions.

A 2023 study published in Science revealed that droughts have rapidly intensified since the 1950s due to human-caused climate change from an increase in fossil fuels.

'In general, climate change is making all weather patterns more extreme,' Dr Rohit T. Aggarwala, New York City's chief climate officer and commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection told The New York Times.

He said that although the northeast is likely to experience wetter conditions heading into the winter months, 'we're also at a great likelihood of shorter, more extreme droughts like the one we may be in right now.'