Drought conditions worsen across Illinois/Wisconsin

The latest drought monitor was released this morning from the National Drought Mitigation Center and unfortunately the news isn't good.  Extreme northern Illinois and all of southern Wisconsin have been upgraded to a severe drought while the counties of Ogle, Lee and DeKalb remain in moderate drought status.  This is due to the recent storm activity that has, for the most part, remained south of Rockford.  Earlier this week Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker declared a State of Emergency in 42 counties in central and southern Wisconsin.  This will make it easier for farmers to temporarily use stream or lake water to irrigate their crops.  Soil moisture in southern Wisconsin in the zero to four inch layer is less than 0.125" indicating extremely dry conditions.  All rivers are now running well below their historical streamflow normals with many reports of boaters striking submerged rocks and stumps or getting stuck on sandbars on the Fox River in Green Lake County.  As far as impacts on the agricultural community in Wisconsin crops are in very poor conditions.  Corn is now in its pollination stage and is in need of rain badly while the soybean growth has halted.

The effects of the dry weather is also being felt across extreme northern Illinois.  According the the Midwestern Regional Climate Center the water content in the zero to four inch layer of soil ran close to only 0.25" or less.  A little further south in Lee and Ogle counties the soil moisture was up to 0.60" due to a little more recent rainfall.  Agricultural impacts are also increasing in the state with roughly 81 percent of the corn crop across Illinois considered to be in fair condition or worse and 80 percent of soybean crop in Illinois in fair condition or worse.  Topsoil moisture across northern Illinois are considered to be short to very short with less than 10 percent of farm fields considered to have adequate topsoil moisture.  Farm Bureaus across the region are reporting either ongoing corn crop damage to total corn crop loss in Winnebago County.  For the hardest hit regions the current drought is being seen as worse than the damaging 1988 drought.  If we don't receive any substantial rain within the next couple weeks the corn will be done for, but there may be some hope for soybean crops.  According to Shaun Casteel, Purdue University Extension soybean specialist, soybeans still have time to recover in fields if a decent amount of rain can fall in August.  Unfortunately, by then it would be too late for corn.

This has become a very serious situation across the corn belt states.   Closer to home, it appears as if the years of 2005 and 1988 were the last two big droughts northern Illinois had experienced.  According to Richard Castro from the Chicago NWS, the years of 1988, 1989 and 1992 were actually a bit drier to date than this year has been so far.  The last time northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin were placed under a severe drought would have been 2005.  By the late summer and fall of 2005 northern Illinois had been placed under extreme drought conditions.