The ongoing drought has intensified slightly in Missouri over the past week, according to new data released by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska.
More than a third of the state is in D-4, or exceptional drought, the worst category, while the rest of the state is in extreme drought, or D-3. Climatologist Mark Svoboda with the NDMC says Missouri can expect a brief reprieve next week: “There’s a system, a cold front, coming through, where it does look like the prospects for some pretty decent precipitation could occur, particularly the northern half of Missouri and even down into west central Missouri that could see several inches of rain.”
But Svoboda also says September is expected to be warmer and drier than normal, and that October and November are normally dry months for Missouri. There’s some long-range good news: Svoboda says the southern plains and Gulf States are expected to have a colder and wetter-than normal winter, and that could eventually help relieve drought conditions in Missouri.
