The associate director of the Midwestern Regional Climate Center says wetter than normal conditions heading into the spring planting season could help relieve some drought conditions.
Melissa Widhalm says winter precipitation has been minimal.
“We saw an expansion on the U.S. Drought Monitor in places like Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and even into parts of the Ohio River Valley,” she says. “We’re down in some areas anywhere from three to eight inches of rain that we should have picked up over these last few months.”
She tells Brownfield current weather models are predicting several inches of rainfall across the Eastern Corn Belt in March.
“It is possible that we could see a return to normal conditions or slightly drier conditions in some areas towards the end of the month,” she says. “Really what we’re seeing overall for the next few weeks is a persistently wet pattern.”
Widhalm says more than 70 percent of the Midwest is currently experiencing moderate to extreme drought conditions.
