Drought Monitor: Gettin' a little dry

Rainfall for the month of May has only totaled 0.64" putting us almost three inches below our monthly average!  While there had been a few storms early Saturday morning as well as a few that passed Monday evening, rainfall has been hard to come by this past month and the results are beginning to show; dry/dusty fields, brown lawns etc.

The latest Drought Monitor from the Drought Mitigation Center does in fact show abnormally dry conditions across not only northern Illinois, but southern Wisconsin as well.  This also extends back through Iowa and Minnesota.  What's interesting to note is that this is the first time the area has been placed under these dry conditions and that parts of Iowa had actually been improving with recent rain over the past several weeks.  Usually, it becomes a little bit of a concern when this type of dry weather is experienced so soon in the season because the threat is there that the trend will continue for the months to follow.  There may, however, be a little light at the end of the tunnel.  Low pressure moving out of the Pacific Northwest will track south of the area later this week hopefully bringing some beneficial rain; a nice soaking rain.