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Missouri rain brings drought relief, but driest areas need more

The state climatologist with University of Missouri Extension welcomes the rain falling across portions of Missouri this week.

Zach Leasor tells Brownfield more than one inch fell across central and northern Missouri on Thursday, and more is in the forecast.

“It could be another inch or two for these locations in the next seven days. The big question will be though, how far south does this rain make it? Our worst drought areas are really in southern Missouri and the forecast isn’t as confident in some of those higher totals.”

He says southern part of Missouri could see some moisture into the weekend, but the rain might be too late for livestock producers to take advantage of pasture improvements to graze.

“Our first freeze, on average, in southern Missouri is towards the third week of October. Even if they do get a really nice rain over the weekend, let’s say, there’s not much of a window to go in and get some regrowth on some of the grass.”

Leasor says refilling ponds and creeks require more than one rain, and southwest Missouri needs at least two inches of soaking rain to recover from the drought.

A flash drought in Missouri has brought widespread dryness in the last month, with the latest U.S. Drought Monitor showing 80 percent of the state dry, and six percent in extreme drought.