Drought and abnormally dry conditions are rapidly expanding across the Midwest and High Plains as an early-autumn heat wave combined with minimal rainfall creates flash drought conditions that are stressing crops and threatening agriculture from Texas to the Great Lakes region.
- Temperatures across the central Great Plains and Corn Belt reached 10-15 degrees F above normal, creating rapid soil dryness and crop stress.
- Missouri experienced severe deterioration with moderate, severe, and extreme drought expanding across south-central, southwest, and northeast regions.
- Flash drought conditions rapidly dried soils and intensified agricultural impacts across the affected areas.
- Eastern Kansas and southeast Nebraska saw large expansions of moderate, severe, and extreme drought this week.
- Some localized improvements occurred in northeast and southwest Nebraska, southeast South Dakota, and northern North Dakota due to scattered heavy rains of 2-5 inches.
Drought and abnormally dry conditions expanded this week across the Midwest and High Plains as an early-autumn heat wave combined with little rainfall to worsen agricultural impacts from Texas to the Great Lakes region, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor. The U.S. Drought Monitor is produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.
Temperatures across much of the central Great Plains, Corn Belt and Missouri ranged from 10-15 degrees F above normal, creating what meteorologists call “flash drought” conditions that rapidly dried out soils and stressed crops.
Missouri sees widespread impacts
Missouri experienced some of the most significant deterioration this week. Moderate, severe and extreme drought coverage grew across south-central and southwest Missouri, where short-term precipitation deficits and soil moisture shortages continued to build while streamflow declined.
Widespread agricultural drought impacts were reported across these areas given the combination of moisture deficits and intense heat. The drought also expanded in northeast Missouri, where short-term rainfall deficits grew and soil moisture and streamflow dropped.
Abnormal dryness spread across much of Missouri, southern Illinois and western Kentucky, where conditions dried quickly due to hot and dry weather over the past few weeks. Most of Missouri, excluding the northwest, received little or no rainfall this week.
Mixed conditions across region
Weather conditions varied considerably across the Midwest. Thunderstorms dropped heavy rain amounts, locally exceeding 5 inches, in northwest Iowa, southern Minnesota and east-central Wisconsin. These storms brought improvements to west-central and northwest Iowa, east-central Wisconsin and northwest Minnesota.
However, extreme drought expanded slightly into the Twin Cities area, where short- and mid-term precipitation deficits increased. In far northern Illinois, hot and dry weather led to a small area of moderate drought development where soil moisture levels dropped.
Short-term moderate drought also developed in parts of the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where rainfall deficits combined with low soil moisture and streamflow.
High Plains drought expands in Kansas
Eastern Kansas and southeast Nebraska were particularly hot and dry this week. Large expansions of moderate, severe and extreme drought occurred in south-central and southeast Kansas, while abnormal dryness was introduced across much of northeast Kansas.
Temperatures were mostly 10-15 degrees above normal in Kansas, eastern Nebraska and southeastern South Dakota.
Some areas saw improvements. Scattered heavy rains fell in northeast and southwest Nebraska, southeast South Dakota and northern North Dakota, leading to localized improvements. Southeastern South Dakota and adjacent far northeast Nebraska received 2-5 inches of rain, improving drought conditions.
National context
While the central U.S. dealt with the heat wave, near- or below-normal temperatures occurred from the Great Basin west to the Pacific Ocean. Former Tropical Storm Edouard delivered very heavy rain to a narrow corridor in southeast Texas, with locally 10-15 inches or more, bringing one- and two-category improvements to the area.
The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center forecast calls for at least 1.5 inches of rain from Wednesday evening through Sept. 14 in northern Iowa, Minnesota, northwest Wisconsin and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
