Drought update: Looking ahead at the fall season’s impact

Taking a look at ongoing dryness and drought-related areas of the nation as of late-August, three areas of concern have developed over the course of the late spring and primarily the summer season.

From west to east, seasonal dryness/short-term drought continues to expand across the western states into the northern and central High Plains, and in particular “Big Sky Country.” All of this is taking place in the wake of a winter and springtime season that brought significant drought improvement if not eradication to the West. Surprisingly, most of California remains adequate in terms of soil moisture.

Meanwhile, the combination of increased dryness and drought, as well as dry-based thunderstorm activity across the Pacific Northwest and parts of the northern and central Rockies has sparked the return of the fire-season across parts of the West.

Another area of the country that has shown deterioration over the past several months is on the Central and Southern Plains, and in particular Oklahoma and Kansas, and especially eastern areas that showed a marked improvement this spring season.

Worsening drought conditions continue to play out across the upper Rio Grande Valley of Texas and much of New Mexico, in contrast to adequate or even overtly wet grounds across eastern sections of Oklahoma, southward into eastern through southeastern Texas.

It's been a back-and-forth scenario of adequate to surplus to too little in the way of soil moisture levels over sections of the Deep South, northern Delta and lower Mississippi Valley locales.

Lastly, much of the Corn Belt remains in relatively good order with just a few exceptions. Parts of northern Illinois, northern Indiana and northern Wisconsin are a bit on the dry side. However, moderate to severe, if not extreme to exceptional drought conditions have rapidly deteriorated crop conditions over central and southern Ohio. Reports indicate that some of those fields have already been harvested and turned over for the season.