Some 51 percent of the continental US — primarily in the central and western regions — is already experiencing moderate to exceptional drought, NOAA says. The agency expects drought conditions to persist throughout the spring, with new drought development in California, the Southwest, the southern Rockies, Texas and Florida.

However, the outlook favors some drought improvement in the Midwest, the northern and central Great Plains, Georgia, the Carolinas and northern Alaska.

In 2003, the General Accounting Office issued a report warning that by 2013 at least 36 states could face water shortages. But by 2008, at least 36 states were already dealing with periodic if not chronic water shortages, with California, New Mexico, and Arizona at the top of the list, according to a report released in January by urinal maker Waterless Co.

Most of the southwest, parts of California and the southern and central Great Plains will be the most vulnerable areas in the US to water shortages during the next 60 years, according to a February report by the US Forest Service.

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