Latest updates on drought ahead of the upcoming growing season

Much of Mid-Missouri is getting prepared for the upcoming growing season, which actually starts off in mid-April. The main reasoning for this is going to be the date of the last freeze.

Typically in Mid-Missouri, it's on average close to April 15th. Another important part of that growing season is going to be focused on drought.

The latest drought monitor release came out Thursday morning. Mid-Missouri saw a little bit of severe drought pushed out of Monroe county. Southwestern portions of the region are not seeing as much moderate drought, which is going to be good for growing conditions.

When looking at the last 30 days alone, southeastern portions of the region are well above average in terms of what we usually see in that time period. To the Northwest, portions of Chariton and Macon counties are drier than usual.

When looking into the next seven days, areas to the north are going to get an additional 1.5", and off to the southeast, a little bit heavier, so that's going to be beneficial. Hopefully we're not going to be seeing too much in terms of heavy downpours within that time period because that could cause some issues for those farmers planting a little bit further out.

Diving into the extended precipitation forecast at 6 to 10 days away, all of Mid-Missouri is going to be looking wetter than average, which could be some good news for those farmers getting ready to plant those fields.