Drought conditions have eased across most of Missouri, but some parts of the state are still very dry.
Much of the relief can be credited to the remnants of Hurricane Isaac, which moved through the Show-Me State three weeks ago. Brian Fuchs is a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Centerat the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He says, though, that portions of Missouri missed out.
“Up in the northwest part of the state, as well as the extreme southwest part of the state, and even the southeast part of the state," Fuchs said. "Some of that lingering dryness has been worse and they have missed out on some of these rain events as well.”
Those three regions contain areas that are in extreme drought (D3), although there are nearby pockets of land in moderate drought (D1). Most of Missouri is in between at severe drought (D2). Fuchs says dry conditions are expected to continue through fall.
“For the month of October, the warm temperatures that we’ve seen through much of the summer and (in) the first part of this fall are gonna continue, so the odds of having above-normal temperatures are there," Fuchs said. "Then it looks like the pattern becomes a little bit drier.”
Fuchs says some relief is possible once winter arrives, though nothing’s certain at this point.
