It's been 19 days since any measureable rain has fallen at BWI, and nearly half the state is now in "severe" drought, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up from less than one percent last week.

The latest USDA Drought Monitor map is out this morning, and it shows only Garrett County enjoying normal moisture, based on measures of rainfall, soil moisture, stream flow and satellite data on damage to vegetation.

Ninety-three percent of the state is experiencing at least "abnormally dry conditions. "Moderate" drought or worse persists across 86 percent of the state, and 47 percent - from southern Frederick, Howard Montgomery, Arundel and all of Southern Maryland to most of the Eastern Shore south of the Bay Bridge - is in "severe" drought.

Our drought is an extension of even more severe conditions that continue to parch the Deep South, especially from Kentucky and Tennessee, to the Carolinas and Alabama.

Stream flows and groundwater levels in Maryland have begun to reach record lows, and much of the state, on both sides of the bay, is in a "severe" hydrological drought, according to the US Geological Survey.