USDA Drought Monitor (2/23): Midwest Sees Wet Conditions

According to today's Drought Monitor report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), multiple storm tracks gave the Midwest region wet conditions along the Ohio River in the south and across the Upper Mississippi Valley and western Great Lakes in the north and west.

Half an inch to an inch or more of precipitation fell in these wet areas, while a dry band of less than a quarter of an inch stretched from central Illinoi to northern Ohio and southeast Michigan.

Totals over 3 inches resulted in flood warnings in Kentucky.

Soils in the Upper Mississippi Valley were dry in the fall, and these dry conditions were locked in place as the soils froze with the onset of winter.

The recent precipitation reduced moderate to extreme drought in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, but the extent of abnormal dryness was kept intact to reflect the dry and frozen soils that haven’t benefited yet from the rain and snow.

Abnormal dryness contracted in southern Indiana, and abnormal dryness and moderate to severe drought contracted in northwest Missouri. Moderate to severe drought continued in Lower Michigan.