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Time is running out to avert a third summer of drought in much of
the High Plains, West and Southwest, federal officials warned Thursday.

Without repeated, significant bouts of heavy snow and rain in the remaining days
of winter, a large part of the country will face serious water supply shortages
this spring and summer, when temperatures are hotter and average precipitation
is normally low.

The drought already ranks as the worst, in terms of severity and geographic
extent, since the 1950s. Though it’s not over yet, its economic impact appears
to be severe, said Brad Rippey, a meteorologist at the Agriculture Department’s
Office of the Chief Economist.

It “will probably end up being a top-five disaster event” on the government’s
ranking of the costliest weather events of the past three decades, he said at a
Capitol Hill briefing Thursday.