By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
One week of rain has led to a further lessening of drought conditions in Kentucky, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report issued on Thursday.
There is no drought in 80.09 percent of the state, which is a slight increase from 78.30 percent in the previous report.
Abnormally dry conditions were observed in 14.21 percent of Kentucky’s land area. That is up from last week’s 10.17 percent, but represents a positive development, as it marks an improvement from higher categories.
Severe drought has remained steady at 2.75 percent of the state.
There are no areas of extreme drought anywhere in the state.
David Simeral with the Western Regional Climate Center noted, “Conditions continued to improve in Kentucky where precipitation has been well above normal during the past month. Looking at climatological rankings for the past 30-day period, numerous locations ranked among their wettest or near-wettest on record, including Paducah (wettest on record, a +7.09 inch departure); Louisville Intl. Airport (wettest on record; +7.08 inches above normal.); and Evansville, IN/Henderson, KY (5th wettest; +4.37 inches).
Looking ahead, the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center six-to-ten-day outlook forecasts temperatures to be slightly above normal across the state with near normal precipitation, except in the far west, where it will be slightly below normal.
The observations are taken every Tuesday morning, with the results released two days later.