The North American Monsoon hit the southwestern United States this past week, bringing a modicum of drought relief, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and eastern California saw some relief, as did central Montana.
Meanwhile, in the Heartland, localized heavy rains brought spotty improvement and record disastrous flooding in St. Louis, where a record 8 to 11 inches of rain fell in 24 hours. West central Missouri missed the worst of the storm and benefitted from nearly 2 inches of rain.
Lynn Fahrmeier of Lafayette County, Missouri, says as a result some of the nervousness about this year’s crop has subsided.
“We may be looking at a decent crop now,” says Fahrmeier, “but we still need rain in August. Particularly, early planted corn and beans are looking good, but crops put in after a spring wet spell are “not great.”
Fahrmeier is well aware he and his neighbors are the lucky ones in the big picture.
“I sure feel sorry for those folks in western Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado,” he says. “It’s real, and it’s bad.”
Parts of southern and eastern Colorado did see beneficial rains this past week.
Flash drought in northeast Texas and eastern and central Oklahoma has caused severe crop deterioration, and a combination of dry and hot weather worsened conditions in southern Kansas. Extreme drought has expanded in parts of southwest Nebraska.
But, overall, a comparison of the Drought Monitor map to last week’s showed little change.
Most drought expansion and retraction was localized, with the exception of southeastern Oklahoma and southern Arkansas/northern Mississippi, which saw drought conditions worsen.
Drought also expanded in northeast Nebraska and southeast South Dakota, and short-term drought spread in parts of the Northeast, where temperatures registered 4 to 8 degrees above normal and calls went out for water conservation measures.
In Iowa, the drought continued its expansion, with only 43.91% of the state drought free, compared to 52.97% one week ago. D3 to D4 conditions took over 3.23% of the state, compared to 2.47% last week, the worst in heavy crop-producing Plymouth County.
In Nebraska, conditions went from bad to worse with only 11.07% of the state now drought free. Conditions in the southwest and northeast are the worst. One year ago, around 30% of the state was drought free.
