Drought coverage is on the decline nationwide. USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey says conditions have not been this good for farmers since June 2020.
“We see just 24.4% of the lower 48 states considered to be in drought. That is down more than six percentage points from late March,” Rippey says. “That is the first time we have seen that number below 25% since all the way back in mid-June of 2020, almost three years ago. We are now seeing just under 46% of the country, either abnormally dry or in drought, and that too is down approximately 6 percentage points from what we were seeing at the end of March.”
Rippey says conditions are definitely moving in the right direction as we recently broke out of a 126-week period from September 2020 through February of this year, where more than 40 percent of the country was in a drought.
Despite the nationwide improvement, many states are still suffering from dry conditions, including Iowa. Taking a look at the latest drought monitor of the state, you can see the majority of the region is covered in some level of drought, but mainly just abnormal levels.
That did not stop this crazy dust storm in the state, though. Kelly Garrett farms in the western part of Iowa and he tweeted out his current conditions. The video shows the farmer’s view out of a truck, of a nearby grain bin. You can barely see it because the wind is blowing so much dust around.
