Five maps of America's massive drought - Vox: Here's NASA's Earth Observatory: "As of May 6, 2014, half of the United States was experiencing some level of drought. Nearly 15 percent of the nation was gripped by extreme to exceptional drought. For the Plains and the Southwest, it's a pattern that has been persistent for much of the past several years."
"Much of the US has been in drought since 2012"
This isn't a one-year event: at least half of the United States has faced drought on and off since 2012 — at the peak in July 2013, some 81 percent of the country was experiencing at least some level of drought.
Put together, the 2012-14 drought has been one of North America's biggest since the costly 1988-89 drought.