More Missouri counties were placed under extreme or exceptional drought conditions before significant rain fell in areas of north Missouri.
Data for the U.S. Drought Monitor map for Missouri was prepared on Tuesday, while rain was falling, with the newest map was released Thursday.
The worse possible condition, D-4, shows exceptional drought conditions existed in all or parts of a dozen northern Missouri counties. These include Grundy, Daviess, Caldwell, Sullivan, Putnam, Livingston, Carroll, Clinton, Gentry, Dekalb, Nodaway, and Howard counties – all of them are north of the Missouri River.
That’s a considerable increase in coverage when compared to last weeks’ map which then showed only western Caldwell County to have exceptional drought conditions.
The map lists all of Caldwell and Daviess counties in exceptional drought while such condition exists in portions of the other counties. Many areas bordering a dozen counties are listed in extreme drought.
This week’s report states some degree of drought was affecting an estimated 5,500,000 people or about 93 percent of the states’ population. Next week we will have an idea what impact this week’s rain and any that should come over the next few days, will have on north Missouri’s drought.
