Drought Update

It's been a while since we've given an update on the drought conditions.  The latest Drought Monitor released last week is showing good news!

12/10/13 Drought Monitor from droughtmonitor.unl.edu

In Illinois, 44.74% of the state is currently classified as Abnormally Dry, compared to 26.20% three months ago.  Moderate Drought is occurring in 20.7% of the state compared to 44.74% back in September.  Finally, 3.49% is considered severe drought compared to 3.58% three months ago.  Locally, there are no counties with classified in a severe drought.

Crossing the Mississippi River over into Iowa, conditions are a little worse, but continuing to improve.  24.11% of the state is Abnormally dry, compared to 25.85% three months ago.  32.79% of the state is in Moderate Drought compared to 30.51% in September.  The area classified as severe drought has significantly dropped from 41.79% three months ago to just 19.70% of the state last week.  Locally, parts of Jackson, Cedar, Muscatine, Johnson and Washington counties are in severe drought.