The level of drought in Missouri and Kansas is going in opposite directions, according to the latest report released by the National Drought Mitigation Center.
Each week, authors build upon the previous week’s map, identifying areas that might have changed in response to recent weather patterns. They bring together the physical climate, weather, and hydrology data and reconcile that with local expert feedback, impact reports and conditions observations.
The latest report, which came out on December 14, suggests that the amount of land impacted by drought in Kansascontinues to decline. Just over 9% of the Sunflower State is not considered to be in any of the five levels of drought. The state has experienced remarkable improvement in exceptional drought levels.
At the start of 2023, over 36% of Kansas was impacted. For the second consecutive year, that figure has held steady at zero. In Missouri,99.86% of the state was impacted by drought in the latest report.
Over 74% of the Show-Me-State is classified in one of the first four out of the five levels. The majority of central Missouri from the Kansas to the Illinois border is included.
Approximately 5.6 million residents between the two states resided in drought conditions with less than one week before the start of winter.
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