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Drought expected to wane in Missouri

A meteorologist says that drought conditions in Missouri are improving, and the long-term forecast calls for above-average rain.

During the Drought Assessment Committee meeting Tuesday, Jared Maples with the National Weather Service said recent rains have alleviated drought conditions in parts of the state.

“Looking in comparison, here, over the last week, the areas had seen some of the most improvement extend across southern portions of the state where we’ve seen a lot of activity fire up over the last seven days.””

With a dry short-term forecast, Maples says that August estimated looks promising.

‘As we get into August, we are going to start transition the pattern a little bit as we have troughing over the central portions of the country. More importantly, here, we have probabilities for above normal precipitation for much of the state.”

The latest US drought monitor shows 95% of Missouri in drought, down four and a half percent from the week prior.