Latest South Dakota Drought Monitor Shows Slight Improvement

The active spring weather pattern has improved the drought status in South Dakota slowly.  The ice and snow that the state captured in the first half of April has given farmers in particular hope for the upcoming planting season.  Nonetheless it seems that there still needs to be significant moisture to come that would break the drought.

The map above shows the current outlook for the extent of dryness based on weather and precipitation models.  The map below is last week’s survey.  In the best of all possible worlds, soil samples would be taken at various depths to take an accurate reading from a wide array of locations.  Instead, we have an educated guess on how dry it probably is in South Dakota.  Northeastern parts of the state still are considered abnormally dry despite these late spring storms.  That means for now the entire Rushmore State is still mired in some form of drought.