The weekly update to the US Drought Monitor was released earlier today and things continue to slowly degrade. Since there is no water demand from plants and little from the atmosphere due to colder temperatures, drought tends to not rapidly deteriorate this time of year. The featured map presents the combination of the most recent drought monitor and year to date precipitation departures based on PRISM. There is an interesting sliver of D1 drought over central Iowa surrounded on three sides by D2 and then D3 drought. The year to date departures hint at why as this region hasn't been as dry as other areas in the state. The drought analysis is not directly derived from a single departure statistic, but considers long and short term precipitation departures along with on the ground impacts.

Voting:
Good = 18
Bad = 0