We knew this was coming. The snowless winter and the sloppy spring were inevitably the opening acts for the ruthlessly, brutally hot summer that we’re currently suffering through. Now, as global warming experts mutter “I told you so” under their breath, we’re starting to see the grizzly consequences of all those triple digit temperature days pan out, and it’s not pretty.On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture named over 1,000 counties in 26 states as natural disaster areas due to drought and extreme weather like wildfires. Affecting over half of the entire country, it’s the largest declaration of its kind in American history. The area affected includes all of Florida, Delaware, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah and Nevada as well as the vast majority of the land in California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina. The declaration means that farmers are eligible for low interest loans to help them make it through the summer heat and reduces the penalties for ranchers who let their livestock graze on protected lands.Read the rest over at Motherboard.