Drought Monitor

The latest drought monitor from the National Drought Mitigation Center was just released Thursday morning.  While some of the drier than normal conditions have improved across central Wisconsin, the drought has worsened for southwest Wisconsin.

Moderate drought conditions have developed over the past week, but the hope is that it will only be short-term (6 months or less).

The update does not have the drought conditions any further south than what was shown last week, meaning that the Stateline is not in any sort of drought as of now. However, if we don't get any much-needed rainfall with tonight's system, or tomorrow's system, we could be seeing those drought conditions edge their way into South-Central Wisconsin and Northern Illinois.

Something of note is that just because we are not officially in the "DRY" or "MODERATE" categories does not mean we are not seeing drier than average conditions across the Stateline. We are below average in the rainfall department for the month of August. Therefore, we could use the rainfall across the area despite not officially being in a drought category yet.

Additionally, with the drier conditions, it is wise to avoid outdoor burning until we see some rainfall. This is especially true on any given day that features breezy conditions as winds can help fuel and spread any fires that develop rather quickly.