The latest U.S. Drought Monitor saw improvement in drought-related conditions across areas of the Intermountain West, High Plains ... the Great Basin and the central and northern Rocky Mountains.

It can be tough to live on the Great Plains ... of the most extreme weather nature can produce. The Plains are bounded by the Rocky Mountains to the west, the Canadian Prairies to the north ...

and lie between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Early European explorers found the Plains a very hostile environment, and the area was marked on early maps as the 'great American ...