Last week we took at the latest drought conditions across the state of South Dakota.
Sadly, the news isn’t any better this time around.
This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor update, which was released earlier this morning, shows an increase in drought on all levels.
Extreme drought, the second highest level of drought, has doubled from last week’s total.
U.S. Drought Monitor maps come out every Thursday morning at 7:30 Central Time, based on data through 7 a.m. CDT the preceding Tuesday, in this case, July 4.
This means that any rainfall we have received between then and now, including the rain from Wednesday night’s storms, was not included in this update.
Below is a comparison of last week’s report with this report.
Unfortunately, it does not look as though we will get any relief in the next couple of weeks.
Looking even further than that, the signs look even worse.
The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) is predicting a drier than normal second week of the forecast period.