LITTLE ROCK — Nearly a third of Arkansas is now considered in an extreme drought and no widespread rain is forecast in the foreseeable future.
The National Weather Service said Thursday that 31.73 percent of the state was under extreme drought conditions, up from less than 1 percent just last week.
And there's no relief in sight. John Robinson, warning coordination meteorologist for the weather service in North Little Rock, said no systems are expected to develop across the state in the coming days.
Some people are hopeful a tropical storm will come north, drenching the state with some needed rain. But Robinson said a recent study by the weather service showed such systems are most likely to affect Arkansas in August into September and then in June. The least likely month is July.
"That kind of gives us a hint that if we manage to get one in July, it'd be a rare occasion," he said.
Some counties in northern Arkansas have already declared emergencies because of the conditions, which statewide have contributed to more than 225 wildfires.
"That shows where this going," Robinson said. "The ponds are going to contiue to get lower. People that have to do irrigation will spend more and more money on diesel fuel to keep the pumps running and keep crops alive. If we continue on into this, it just gets hotter and dryer."
The Forestry Commission says wildfires have consumed more than 2,940 acres just this month and more than 14,000 acres for the year.
That problem could worsen soon, Robinson said, when dry conditions meet an Independence Day holiday so often celebrated with fireworks.
"The big fear is what people are going to do with fireworks around the Fourth of July," Robinson said. "Things are just dried out so much I'm afraid we're going to see quite a few wildfires."
As of Thursday, more than 87 percent of the state is under at least a severe drought. At this time last year, more than 83 percent of the state had no drought.