USDA Drought Monitor (3/30): Wet Weather Occurs Across Much of Midwest

According to today's Drought Monitor report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), wet weather occurred across much of the Midwest this week, excluding the western Michigan Upper Peninsula, southeast Iowa and Wisconsin, far northwest Missouri and Minnesota.

Precipitation amounts from 2 to locally as high as 4 or 5 inches fell roughly along and south of the Interstate 44 and 70 corridors. Temperatures across the region ranged from 6 to 12 degrees colder than normal in much of Minnesota to 6 to 9 degrees warmer than normal in parts of Kentucky, with a mostly continuous gradient between these extremes from northwest to southeast.

The region remained mostly free of drought this week, with the exception of lingering long-term drought in western Iowa, western Minnesota and southeast Lower Michigan, and the edge of more significant short- and long-term drought extending from the Kansas into far southwest Missouri.

Conditions were reassessed after wetter winter conditions in southwest Minnesota, leading to some reduction in moderate drought there.

Read the full report here.