As of May 31, five of Querétaro’s 18 municipalities registered abnormally dry conditions, according to the Mexican Drought Monitor (MSM) of the National Water Commission (Conagua).
These conditions are found in municipalities located in the semi-desert region and in the southern part of the state, including Colón, Ezequiel Montes, Pedro Escobedo, San Juan del Río, and Tequisquiapan.
An abnormally dry area is a condition of dryness, not a category of drought. It occurs at the beginning or end of a drought period: at the beginning, because short-term dryness can delay the planting of annual crops, limit the growth of crops or pastures, and increase the risk of fires; at the end, the water deficit may persist, and pastures or crops may not fully recover.
The abnormally dry area expanded starting in the first half of April. Previously, for nine and a half months, the state had been free of these conditions. The previous record was from the first half of June 2025, when the mountain municipalities of Jalpan de Serra and Landa de Matamoros experienced these characteristics.
A year ago, Querétaro ended May with four municipalities experiencing abnormally dry conditions (Pinal de Amoles, Cadereyta de Montes, Jalpan de Serra, and San Joaquín) and one experiencing moderate drought (Landa de Matamoros).
Over the past year, the state’s condition has improved, after most of Querétaro’s territory registered the highest drought categories two years ago.
In May 2024, 17 of the 18 municipalities were experiencing exceptional drought, and one was experiencing extreme drought. By the first half of June of that year, the entire state was experiencing exceptional drought, the highest of the four drought levels.
During 2026, the state began experiencing abnormally dry conditions in April, in two municipalities; by the first half of May, seven municipalities had these characteristics, and by the second half, this number had decreased to five.
As of May 31, 11.8% of the state’s total area was abnormally dry, while 88.2% remained unaffected.
Mexico ended the second half of May with 2.8% of its area experiencing moderate to extreme drought, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points compared to the previous two weeks.
Of the country’s 2,478 municipalities, 88% (2,183) were unaffected by drought at the end of the month, 9.9% (245) were abnormally dry, and 2% (50) had some degree of drought.
Sinaloa and Coahuila reported the highest percentages of municipalities experiencing drought, with 35% and 34.2%, respectively.
The MSM reports that in the second half of May, rainfall above the climatological average was recorded in the north-central, northeast, eastern, central, and Yucatán Peninsula regions, due to the interaction of various atmospheric systems.
In addition, a heat wave persisted in the states along Mexico’s Pacific coast and in the northern region of the country, where precipitation deficits were also recorded, increasing abnormally dry areas in some states.
Source: eleconomista
