PROJECT ALERT NOTICE (MO) Drought Activities Update

Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:27:08 EDT

Summary: Drought conditions improve slightly in Missouri due to recent rains, but most of the state is still dry.

Hydrologic Conditions: Drought conditions lessen due to recent rains, but continue throughout Missouri. As of September 4, the U.S. Drought Monitor shows 98 percent of the state experiencing severe drought, 32 percent experiencing extreme drought, and 3 percent experiencing exceptional drought.

Streamgages: The streamflow has increased this week, but there are still many streamgages with flows currently in the below to much below normal categories.

Groundwater: From August 30 to September 5, water levels in 24 wells decreased to new period of record (POR) lows. All 24 of these wells were on the list of 41 wells setting record lows the previous week. Compared to the previous week, water level declines at these 24 wells ranged from 0.01 to 0.46 ft in spite of the 1 to 6 inches of rain received statewide last weekend. The total count remains at 68 wells of the 163 Missouri monitoring wells that have set new POR low water levels since June 2012. Thirteen of these wells have recovered from 1 to 10 feet since the well set the record low earlier in the summer and another 6 wells have recovered over 10 feet. There are currently 34 wells that have not set POR low water levels this summer but are within 5 feet of doing so.

Communications and outreach: With the recent rain we've experienced no drought inquiries this week.

Sub-Region: Midwest; Region: Central United States