Puerto Rico typically enters its wet season in May, but 2026 has unfolded very differently. By late August, rainfall had remained scarce across much of the U.S. territory, allowing drought conditions to spread rapidly. The lack of rain has contributed to water shortages and rationing in some communities, prompting Puerto Rico's governor to declare a state of emergency in late July. In late August, the U.S. government also issued a drought disaster declaration covering more than two dozen cities and towns.
The map shows the severity and geographic extent of drought across Puerto Rico on August 25, 2026. It was created by the U.S. Drought Monitor, a collaboration involving the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA.
NASA has supported the project for years with Earth observations and scientific expertise. That involvement expanded in 2026 when two NASA scientists joined the small group responsible for producing the weekly drought assessments.
David Mocko, a senior research scientist in the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said the effects of the unusually hot and dry conditions were visible across multiple types of satellite and ground-based data used by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
