Washington ? It isn’t the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, but serious drought is afflicting nearly half the country after the hottest summer since then.

It has wilted crops and lawns, parched pastureland and forced communities to impose water restrictions.

Moderate to extreme drought affected more than 45 percent of the country during each of the last three months, the National Climatic Data Center reported Friday.

Nationwide, the summer June through August was the third hottest on record, following only 1936 and 1934, the agency said.

The toll of drought and heat won’t be known for some time, but Conrad Lautenbacher, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, estimated that as much as $2.7 trillion of the economy is directly sensitive to weather conditions.

Weather patterns have kept moisture away from the Northeast and Western states and much of the South, while parts of the upper Midwest, particularly Minnesota and the Dakotas, received above normal rainfall.

Among effects:

The Agriculture Department has opened up conservation lands across the country for hay harvesting or grazing to assist drought-plagued farmers.

By the end of August, 6 million acres of mostly forest an area roughly the size of New Hampshire had been consumed by flames across the United States. That’s double the average annual damage by wildfires, with costs estimated at $1.5 billion so far and large fires still burning in the West.

In Las Vegas, water wasters can be fined and sent to conservation class.

The city of Golden, Colo., is faced with buying water from Coors Brewing Co., after losing a court fight over rights to a creek.

In New England, dryness threatens the cranberry crop because the bogs where the berries grow can’t be flooded for harvesting.

The Climatic Data Center, in Asheville, N.C., reported that the average temperature for the 48 contiguous states this summer was 73.9 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 1.8 degrees warmer than normal and the third hottest on record.

The report comes just a day after the National Weather Service forecast dry conditions continuing through the winter for much of the country. Only the South is expected to be wetter than normal.

Heavy rainfall eased drought but led to severe flooding in early July in Texas, with damage estimates as high as $1 billion. Strong thunderstorms also brought widespread flooding to western Minnesota and North Dakota.