Drought outlooks indicate persistent drought through the end of the year

Fairly quiet weather continues for October as Mid-MO saw little to no rain for the first half of the month. As most of the area falls further behind on rainfall, drought is becoming a problem again.

The latest drought monitor, released on October 17th, shows degrading conditions across the Show Me state. Over three-quarters of Missouri is drier than average, and 39% of the state is officially in a drought. Over the last 30 days, most of Missouri has received only half to a third of the typical amount of rain for early fall.

For the rest of October, the forecast is trending warmer and drier than normal. The end-of-year drought outlook doesn't show much hope for improvement as drought is expected to persist across large swaths of the country. Drought is expected to develop further across the Deep South.