IARN — Changes were minimal in the national topsoil moisture condition ratings.
According to USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey, state topsoil moisture condition ratings reflect a continuing trend of dryness.
“Topsoil moisture numbers from USDA for the week ending June 28th indicates that we saw no overall change in topsoil moisture rated very short to short – steady at 34 percent,” Rippey said. “At the same time, topsoil moisture rated surplus was also unchanged at seven percent. There are quite a few areas experiencing rather dry conditions for late June, mostly across the western half of the country.”
Rippey breaks down the latest USDA data for Midwestern states.
“Getting to the Midwest, we saw some nice improvements over the last week in the Eastern Corn Belt,” Rippey said. “We saw percentage point declines from June 21st – June 28th of at least 15 percentage points, meaning it turned wetter in states like Indiana and Ohio. The improvement there in Indiana went from 54 percent very short to short a week ago to the current 35 percent. Ohio went from 47 percent to 31 percent. We see some pretty high numbers for other states in the Midwest.”
On the surplus side, Rippey says the national numbers didn’t show much change week to week.
“The national number is only seven percent,” Rippey said. “There are just very few states showing near 20 percent topsoil moisture surplus. That does include Maryland at 21 percent, and just under that number in Idaho 19 percent and Arkansas at 18 percent. Wetness not really an issues in many parts of the U.S. anymore.”
The state by state breakdown of topsoil moisture conditions can be found at drought.gov.
For drought conditions, the latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows abnormally dry conditions in parts of western and central Iowa, mostly western Iowa. It should be noted that no drought conditions moderate or higher were reported in Iowa.
