Insider Blog: Drought impacts continue across Mid-MO

This year's drought is now a billion-dollar disaster nationwide and will continue further into the end of the year. Dry conditions recently have allowed Mid-MO to fall behind on rainfall, with our deficit dropping several inches below average this past month. This has allowed extreme drought to creep back into especially the western parts of our area.

Drought has cost the state between $250 to $500 million dollars and numbers have only just begun to come in as harvest continues. This dryness won't likely leave us anytime soon as below-average rainfall is expected into late October at least. The rest of the year is only near normal, which won't help in catching up on the current deficit. Soaking rain will be necessary to knock this billion-dollar drought across the country.