The new Drought Monitor shows both vast declines and huge improvements in conditions across several parts of the country. Oklahoma is one state showing improvement. Oklahoma was 60 percent drought-free last week, and recent rainfall has shrunk the areas under drought to just 14 percent. Cooler temps brought rainfall to much of northern Texas and Oklahoma that added up to 600 percent of normal this time of year. USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey says Montana remains the biggest hot-spot. He says the drought is continuing to expand westward in spite of seeing some recent improvements in the Dakotas and Nebraska. Substantial rains fell across parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Extreme drought has officially entered into Iowa, covering 3 percent of the state and 70 percent of Iowa is experiencing either abnormal dryness or actual drought.
Rippey says, if a large area including northern Iowa, northern Missouri, and southern Michigan could pick up a good, soaking rain, it would help with “filling corn and soybeans in the driest regions.”
Source: NAFB News Service