Drought worsens, southeast Kansas hit the hardest

The drought in the KZRG listening area continues and will persist for the near future.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, drought conditions have become worse across southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri over the past week.

Exceptional (D4) drought remained from last week and expanded across southeast Kansas including all of Cherokee and Crawford Counties. This includes the following towns: Pittsburg, Columbus, Girard, McCune, Sherman and Walnut.

In southwestern Missouri, exceptional (D4) drought expanded across all of Barton County, far southern Vernon County, northern Jasper County, far western Dade County and extreme northwestern Lawrence County. This includes the cities of Lamar, Liberal, Jasper, Carthage, Golden City, and Bronaugh.

Surrounding the (D4) drought area, extreme (D3) drought coverage was expanded east, south and northward and now includes southern Bourbon, most of Vernon, western Dade, Western Cedar, northern Lawrence, all but southern Jasper, extreme northern and western Newton and far northwestern McDonald Counties. Cities within the extreme drought area include Webb City, Nevada, Diamond, Wagoner, Jericho Springs, Lockwood, Miller, Mount Vernon and Tiff City in southwest Missouri and Baxter Springs and Hiatville in southeast Kansas.

The National Weather Service believes there is a ‘medium’ chance that the drought worsens, and believe there is a ‘high’ chance that the drought persists through the end of the year.