Rain that fell in Kentucky during the past week has alleviated drought conditions in most of the state, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor weekly report that was issued on Thursday.
86.57 percent of Kentucky now has no drought conditions, which is up from the 65.77 percent figure from last week’s report.
Abnormally dry conditions exist in 10.67 percent of the state and is designated as D0 on the scale that goes from D0 to D4, which indicates exceptional drought. That is down considerably from 22.80 percent that was recorded last week.
The part of the state that has moderate drought, or D1, currently stands at 2.76 percent, and is only found in all or part of six far Western Kentucky counties. Last week, 11.43 percent of Kentucky was in moderate drought. Currently, no area is D2 or worse.
Richard Tinker with the National Weather Service says, “Over the past 30 days, heavy precipitation (4 to locally over 8 inches) fell on parts of central and southern New England, the interior Northeast (especially eastern New York state), the Ohio Valley (particularly Northern Kentucky and adjacent areas), eastern South Carolina, eastern Florida, parts of the Tennessee and adjacent Mississippi Valleys.”
He also notes that in the Midwest, which is where they consider Kentucky, “There was some expansion of dryness and moderate drought from northern Minnesota through Iowa, where less precipitation fell, but much broader areas of improvement were noted over the Michigan Lower Peninsula and the Ohio Valley States.”
Looking ahead, the 6–10-day outlook from the Climate Prediction Center predicts normal to slightly below normal temperatures during that time, as well as slightly above average precipitation.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is produced through a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Reports released each Thursday cover the previous seven days through Tuesday morning.
Kentucky Today