(Bloomberg) -- Drought conditions widened across theU.S. as the West saw little rain even as areas east of theMississippi River benefited from storms.

About 37.5% of the 48 contiguous states are now in drought,up from 36.9% last week, said the U.S. Drought Monitor inLincoln, Neb. Areas covered by the two worst categories ofdrought were little changed at about 9.1%.

“Significant amounts of rain fell from Iowa across Minnesota,Wisconsin and into Michigan,” according to the weekly report. “Theimpacted areas saw improvement in Moderate Drought andAbnormal Dryness in the path of the storm. Other areas remainedunchanged.”

Drought is at its worst in California, where 66.6% of thestate is covered by the two most severe categories of dryness. Morethan 77.2 million people in the contiguous states live in areasaffected bydrought, the monitor said.

There are four categories of drought ranging frommoderate to extreme. The monitor also tracks abnormal dryness,which currently covers almost 59% of the lower 48 states.

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