U.S. Drought update improve compared to past years

There's good news across much of the Midwest as we compare drought conditions with the last several years for this time in June.

Looking back to 2023, a multi-year long standing drought was in full swing for much of the Midwest. The region saw severe and extreme drought across central portions of Mid- Missouri and even our western border states.

Now, looking back to 2024 on June 18th, a lot of improvement can be seen across much of the Midwest. The country still saw a decent amount of drought on the eastern coast and the southwestern portions of the United States where drought continued to persist.

The latest drought monitor just last Thursday shows improvement across the eastern half of the country. Missouri continues to remain mostly out of drought, but to the southwest, back towards Texas, California, and Arizona, they're continuing to see that drought. A lot of the extreme drought continues to grow. This is good news for Mid-Missouri.

Taking a look at what we've seen in the past year in terms of percent of normal, a lot of green continues to hang around the area. This is going to be good for farmers and local wildlife, but we're still seeing some areas that need a little bit more rainfall. The area in need of rainfall the most is into northern portions of the state towards the Missouri and Iowa border.

Looking a little bit further ahead, a little bit more relief is on the way. The high pressure system the Eastern U.S. has been dealing with for the last week is going to continue to fizzle out, off to the southeast and much of the country going to be looking at wetter than average conditions into the extended precipitation outlook.