Some
rain fell at the northwest and southeast ends of the Midwest region
this week, but most of the region received no precipitation. The
Southeast’s cutoff low dropped 2 inches of rain over extreme eastern
Kentucky, while thunderstorms gave parts of Minnesota up to an inch of
rain. But the story for the Midwest was continued drying of soils, low
streamflow, and mounting precipitation deficits over the last 1 to 3
months. Reports have been received in Indiana of lawns in yards
becoming stressed and going dormant, pond levels dropping, some stress
in pastures, and mesonet stations reporting soils becoming drier. In
Illinois, there were reports of dry/dormant lawns, cracked soil, visibly
stressed young trees and shrubs, and unusually low stream and pond
levels; corn and beans were doing okay for now, but there were more
widespread emergence issues developing from soil crusting. D0 expanded
across most of the region; D1 grew in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri; D2
(severe drought) expanded in Iowa and Missouri; and D3 grew in Missouri.
Soils rapidly dried across the Midwest. As of May 28, USDA data
revealed more than half of the topsoil moisture was short or very short
in Iowa (50%), Missouri (62%), and Michigan (68%), and 40% or more was
short or very short in Wisconsin (45%), Ohio (45%), Illinois (42%), and
Indiana (40%).
Full Summary