Drought Remains Despite Heavy Rains In South Dakota

April and May precipitation have given farmers hope and some homeowners wet basements.  The USDA Drought Monitor for this week shows that South Dakota now has tripled the area of normal soil moisture conditions compared to last week (5-17 percent).

Despite the widespread heavy rain, a lot of the moisture ran into the river system and did not soak through to the subsoil.  Thus there are still areas showing up lacking in moisture at deeper levels.  Steady rains at nicely timed intervals would remove more of the land from the dry category.

Surrounding states such as Iowa and Minnesota also show a marked improvement in according to the monitor as well.  The Corn Belt as a whole will have more than enough moisture to get a crop started this year.

A closer look at Nebraska shows that western portions of the Cornhusker state has some catching up to do.