The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map released early this morning shows a small improvement over the past week in drought reduction. About 38% of the nation remains in a dry category, but this is down by 0.6% from last week. The Midwest had the most improvement since last week with a 9.7% decine in drought and is at 41.6% in a drought category. The High Plains also had a decrease in dry areas with less than a 2% decline and is just below 47% too dry. The other regions had increases in dryness as the South Central region had more than a 2% increase to 37.1% in drought. The Southeast still has the fewest dry areas, but saw an increase by over 4% to 11.5% im a drought category. In key Midwest states, recent rainfall has led to some improvement in Iowa which had an 8.8% decline in drought and is down to 76.5% too dry. A few weeks ago almost the entire state of Iowa was in a dry category. Illinois also had improvement from last week with a 7.6% downfall in drought areas to about 11.7% in a dry zone. Lastly, Indiana has become entirely free of drought after being 6.4% too dry last week.
