Weekly Drought Report, August 9: It's Worse

The U.S. Drought Monitor has released its weekly report, and I don't think any of us should be surprised that conditions have worsened. Missouri's numbers look absolutely terrible.

100 percent of the state is gripped by severe drought (D2-D4 ranking). 94.56 percent of the state is in the D3-D4 category (red on the map, right), which means extreme drought; that's up from 92.79 percent last week. Even more alarming is the increase in the percentage of the state that's suffering from D4 conditions (exceptional drought, marked in brick red on the map, right): 13.89 percent of Missouri has reached that point, an increase of 5.4 percent. Look at that map over there -- the Show-Me State looks like a week-old scab.

Is there any good news in this week's report? Maybe. Who knows? The researchers open strong in their section on the Midwest, noting that,

"Conditions continue to improve in the eastern half of the region, as another week of good rains came to Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Again, generally speaking, the drought continues to improve and is being pushed west, tightening the gradient along the way with 1-category improvements noted in eastern and southern Ohio, eastern and central Kentucky and north-central Indiana."

If that improvement continues to push west, maybe in a few weeks it'll include us. Maybe.