Summer Drought Dries Up Rivers

The heat and lack of rain continues to take a toll on much of the county with thousands of fish dying in lakes and rivers that are drying up. In some cases, the fish are dying because the water is so hot they can't survive.

Farmers and their livestock are suffering and state and county fairs don't have their usual contingents of animals and vegetables for judging.

The brutal conditions - highs in the Phoenix area could top 110 degrees Monday - are being compared to the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.

Ed Kieser, a broadcast and agricultural meteorologist, says a ridge of high pressure is stuck over the central part of the US, causing a lack of rain.

"Right in the middle of the corn belt in July rainfall amounts were extraordinarly low," Kieser said. "Only one one-hundreths of an inch fell in Omaha, Nebraska for the entire month."