News

An update on drought conditions

The associate director of the Midwest Regional Climate Center says recent rainfall has helped ease drought conditions in parts of the Ohio River Valley.

Melissa Widhelm tells Brownfield, “We have some soil moisture that is below what we would like to see,” she says. “We just weren’t getting the rainfall in the central U.S. that we wanted, and it looks like in the forecast that’s going to turn around a bit for us. It’s leaning a little bit wetter than what we would typically get for this time of year.”

But, she says there’s still a lingering risk of frost and freeze events.

“It’s really not until we get into maybe mid-April or so when we start to feel a little more confident that temperatures are going to warm up and stay warm enough,” she says. “That’s when we can get those tractors rolling.”

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly half of the Eastern Corn Belt still experiencing dry conditions. A moderate drought has returned to much of central Illinois, central Indiana, and parts of northwest Ohio. 

AUDIO: Melissa Wildhelm, MRCC