More than a dozen northwest Missouri counties are experiencing slight drought conditions, according to the drought monitor map released Thursday, August 18, 2021. The map is developed based on soil conditions as of Tuesday.
Each of the counties mentioned is in the category called abnormally dry. The only county within the Green Hills Region that shows abnormally dry conditions is the southwest half of Caldwell county. All of Ray and Lafayette counties are abnormally dry. Portions of other counties experiencing abnormally dry soils (from the northwest to the southeast) are Atchison, Holt, Nodaway, Andrew, Buchanan, DeKalb, Clinton, Clay, Carroll, Saline, and Johnson.
The map shows eight and a half percent of Missouri to be abnormally dry, which is a reduction from eleven point six percent last week. Besides all or parts of the fourteen counties in northwest Missouri, there are portions of six counties in far southern Missouri that also are rated abnormally dry. The drought monitor map contains five potential categories of drought but none are higher than the least amount.
Trenton is significantly behind normal on rainfall so far this month, having received only fifty-three hundredths (.53 inches) and none for the past week. The year-to-date moisture in Trenton is still ahead of normal by an inch and three quarters.
Trenton has received 27.60 inches of rain for the year to date, while the average rainfall, year to date, is 25.86 inches.
