Large swaths of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio are abnormally dry and most of Michigan is in moderate drought due to limited spring precipitation, said the weekly Drought Monitor on Thursday. Arid conditions covered 48 percent of the Midwest, the heart of U.S. corn and soybean production, compared to 32 percent a week earlier.
“Much of the Ohio Valley states, and Iowa to lower Michigan, had little to no precipitation this week,” said the Monitor, based on conditions as of Tuesday. Almost all of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and the eastern third of its Upper Peninsula were in moderate drought. “Precipitation deficits over the last 90 days have been building, streams are low, and soil moisture continues to dry” in the Lower Peninsula, said the Monitor.
The USDA rated topsoil as short or very short of moisture in half or more of Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and North Dakota, said the Monitor. “Several Colorado counties were asked to voluntarily conserve water.”
In a related report, the USDA said that roughly one-fifth of corn and soybean territory was in a drought area. Some 39 percent of acres used for winter wheat, which is grown most heavily in the central and southern Plains, and 82 percent of spring wheat acres, planted mostly in the northern Plains, were in drought.