Friday, June 2, 2023

Thunderstorms the past 24 hours brought welcome rainfall to the western Cornbelt with general .25-1.00 inch amounts, and some spots received 1-2+ inch downpours. This will bring relief to the dry areas of the western Midwest for the short term. However, it looks drier this weekend into next week after more scattered thunderstorms in the west half today and tonight. Yesterday's drought monitor map showed a major increase in dry areas over the past week for the Midwest, mostly into the first drought category. There will be a few scattered showers in the western Midwest later next week, but below normal precipitation across the region during the 6-10 day outlook. This will likely lead to a small increase over the next week in drought areas for the Midwest, especially in the east half. Not much change for the 11-15 day outlook with near to below normal precipitation.