Mexico suffers extreme drought

The same drought that has parched the Southwestern United States has resulted in the worst dry spell in Mexico’s 70-year recorded history.

Mexican farmers have reported 2.2 million acres of lost crops and that 1.7 million farm animals have died this year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Most affected are Mexico’s five northernmost states, where the government has taken to trucking water into more than 1,500 villages and sending food to farmers who were unable to harvest their crops. The northern states experience an average annual rainfall of about 21 inches, and they have only seen 12 inches so far in 2011. It is the most severe drought on record since the government began recording rainfall in 1941.

Relief is unlikely in the immediate future, as the next rainy season isn’t due until next June.