The area of South Dakota ranked “abnormally dry” shrank the past week, according to the federal “Drought Monitor” mapping, but the small area rated as in actual drought – moderate and severe drought – stayed exactly the same, at 12.96 percent; The last time that some form of drought affected such a small area of the state as now — pegged at 12.96 percent — was May 23, 2017, when only 6.79 percent of the state’s area had moderate drought or worse, Richard Heim told the Capital Journal on Thursday.
He’s the author of the National Drought Monitor report, with maps, released Thursday, using data effective as of Tuesday, June 26.
Heim, with more than three decades experience with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal government’s agency that monitors climate and the environment, is based in North Carolina.
Heim explained how the area of the state pegged as experiencing some form of formal, federally-defined drought remained exactly the same this week as last, down to the second decimal place: 12.96 percent of the state’s area.
It amounts to 10,124 square miles — of the state’s total of 78,116 square miles — all gathered in one contiguous area of the prairie-pothole region in the northeast corner of the state.
It’s mostly moderate drought, except for a splotch of severe drought sort of around the drake’s eye, about 3,000 square miles roughly from northeast of Aberdeen down to Redfield that’s in severe drought.. That blob of severe drought is about 60 miles across, just under 3,000 square miles, comprising southern Brown and northern Spink counties.
Since the data didn’t show any change to speak of from the June 21 map based on June 19 conditions, the area showing drought was left at 12.96 percent, Heim said.
That includes 9.16 percent of the state’s area in moderate drought, surrounding the 3.8 percent of land in severe drought.
One year ago, 56.9 percent of South Dakota’s acres were in some form of drought, including 2.09 percent in extreme drought and 29.26 percent in severe drought; 90.68 percent of the state was abnormally dry or in drought as of June 27, 2017.
This week, 64.91 percent of the state is free of abnormally dry or drought conditions, according to Heim’s drought monitor map; 22.13 percent of the state is experiencing abnormally dry conditions short of drought.