The Monitor puts extreme drought at 44.45 percent; it rises 11.14 points in a week

On August 27, 2026, at 3:02 p.m., El Nuevo Día reports, by Andrea Guemárez Soto, that the U.S. Drought Monitor already places 44.45 percent of Puerto Rico under extreme drought (D3). The week prior that layer stood at 33.31 percent: 11.14 points more. It is not a uniform expansion. The same text says there is intensification more than expansion. D2 remains at 22.16 percent, D1 at 8.60, and D0 at 7.70. Some degree of dryness or drought covers 82.91 percent.

The newspaper lists whole municipalities in D3: Lajas, Peñuelas, Juana Díaz, Villalba, Coamo, Santa Isabel, Aibonito, Trujillo Alto, Gurabo, Carolina, Canóvanas, Loíza, Juncos, Las Piedras, Humacao, Río Grande, Luquillo, Fajardo, Ceiba, Vieques, and Culebra. Isolated rains, according to that page, are not enough. The El Niño pattern appears as a frame, not as a forecast by this desk.

On the 24th, NotiCel, in extreme drought approaching 40 percent, left the 40 of D3 as a possibility from Ernesto Rodríguez. On the 26th, El Nuevo Día, in spending of more than 26.2 million, put 82 percent in the photo caption: dryness in the broad sense, not a D3 map. This note does not rewrite those layers. The 44.45 is the Monitor of the 27th. The 82.91 of some degree and the 82 of the caption are not averaged.

There is here no hearing of the 28th and no rationing count. What remains is 44.45 of D3, 11.14 points in a week, and the list of whole municipalities. A reader who wants the federal map has the El Nuevo Día URL at the foot. This is not original reporting.

Source: El Nuevo Día. https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/notas/mas-del-44-de-puerto-rico-ya-se-encuentra-bajo-sequia-extrema/