Area drought conditions ease slightly

The drought has eased ever so slightly in parts of the Joplin metro area, but we still continue to see below average rainfall, thus ‘Extreme Drought’ conditions continue for certain areas.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, severe to extreme drought conditions continue over portions of the the Missouri Ozarks and far southeastern Kansas.

Extreme drought (D3) decreased across portions of central and southwestern Missouri but remained nearly the same for southeastern Kansas.

Several rounds of heavy rainfall occurred over the past week, with as much as 2 to 5 inches in portions of the area, but as little as a half inch or less in others.

The Extreme Drought (D3) area remains for northeastern Webster County and for a band from Lamar to Golden City to Cassville in southwest Missouri and for far southern Crawford and nearly all of Cherokee Counties in Kansas. Cities within the D3 area include Lamar, Golden City, Columbus, Cassville, Monett, Powell and Carthage.

Temperatures over the weekend are expected to be warm and dry with precipitation chances occuring early next week.

However, a return to above normal temperatures with near normal precipitation is expected towards the end of August into early September.

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