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Drought Improvement In SW Missouri, But Other Areas See Declines

September 28, 2023 11:14PM CDT
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Drought Improvement In SW Missouri, But Other Areas See Declines
Drought conditions in Missouri as of Sept. 26th, 2023. (The U.S. Drought Monitor is jointly produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Map courtesy of NDMC.)

Areas of Southwest Missouri improved over the past week in the latest Drought Monitor, but several other parts of the state went in the opposite direction.  This week’s update saw extreme drought come to a close in parts of five counties along and north of Route 160, as well as western Bates and parts of Central Cass counties.  Eastern Jasper County was upgraded from moderate drought to abnormal dryness.  Parts of six counties along and south of Interstate 44 returned to normal moisture levels.

Unfortunately, Southwest Missouri showed the only improvement on the monitor, as severe drought arrived in southern Gasconade, eastern Maries, and southeastern Osage counties.  Moderate drought spread east into the rest of Gasconade, along with western Franklin, eastern Warren, and the western fourth of St Charles counties.  Clark County also dropped into moderate drought from abnormal dryness.  Pre-drought conditions also re-entered the Bootheel, while also spreading into Perry, St François, Ste Genevieve, and southern Washington counties.  Abnormal dryness also returned to Atchison and northern Nodaway counties.

54.9 percent of Missouri is in some stage of drought, up a quarter-point from last week.  While the area in extreme drought dropped to just over nine percent, 18.2 percent of the state are now in severe drought and another 27.7 percent is in moderate drought.  27 percent of the state is in abnormal dryness.

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