The long-running drought that covers more than half of the continental United States — mostly west of the Mississippi — worsened in the central and southern Plains last week, the heart of U.S. winter wheat production, said the government’s Drought Monitor on Thursday. In Kansas, the No. 1 winter wheat state, 31 percent of the crop was rated as being in poor or very poor condition.
“Despite some snow on the High Plains … the general theme was toward gradually worsening drought conditions, especially in Kansas and Nebraska,” said the weekly report by the USDA and NOAA. Topsoil moisture was rated as short or very short in 77 percent of Kansas, 73 percent of Nebraska, and 82 percent of Colorado.
Winter wheat conditions also worsened in Texas and Oklahoma as the drought deepened. More than 86 percent of Texas and more than 88 percent of Oklahoma was covered by drought. In Kansas, the figure was nearly 60 percent, and in Nebraska, it was 35 percent.
“Worsening drought on the Plains has also contributed to several midwinter wildfires; a few, including the Mill Creek Fire in Shackleford County, Texas — which was ignited on Jan. 15 — torched more than 1,000 acres of brush and grass,” said the Drought Monitor. “Burn bans were in effect for dozens of counties in Oklahoma and Texas.”
Growers sowed 34.4 million acres of winter wheat, the dominant U.S. variety, for harvest this year, a marginal increase from last year. Winter wheat is planted and sprouts in the fall, goes dormant during the winter, and matures in the spring. Although wheat is a famously hardy crop, persistently dry weather is a threat.
In good news for the struggling wheat crop, as much as 27 inches of snow fell in western Kansas early this week, said Lisa Teachman, chief meteorologist at KSN-TV in Wichita. “This recent moisture surplus will help farms hang on until the next decent system, which will be next week,” she said.
More than 40 percent of the continental United States has experienced drought for the past 70 weeks, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information said on social media.
Overall, 68 percent of winter wheat territory, which stretches from the mid-Atlantic states to California and the Pacific Northwest, was in drought, said the USDA’s “Ag in Drought” website. So was 78 percent of durum wheat land, 76 percent of barley land, and 75 percent of sorghum land. Durum wheat is grown mostly in the northern Plains, California, and Arizona. Sorghum is grown mostly in the Plains and the western Corn Belt.