Storm Center 7

Despite Rain this Week, Soil Moisture Didn’t See Much Improvement

Rain and storms moved through the Miami Valley Wednesday and Thursday. Though it was helpful that a handful of cities saw a few tenths of an inch of rain, it wasn’t close enough to improve the deficit a dry September and October has created.

The US Drought Monitor released an update Thursday that show 46 percent of Ohio is considered “abnormally dry” most of the counties in that category are in the Miami Valley. This is a larger area than last week. Every county except for Logan is dealing with enough of a moisture deficit to be considered “abnormally dry.”

Here is what the D0 category means according to the US Drought Monitor:

Going into drought:

  • short-term dryness slowing planting, growth of crops or pastures

The drought monitor ISN’T a forecast. It is an assessment of how much rain did or didn’t fall up until Tuesday. Since we did see some rain Wednesday & Thursday, the next drought monitor released October 20 would reflect it. Drought is slow to develop so it usually takes more than one day of rain to really make soil improvements. We will be monitoring the situation as we progress through fall!

This time of year, having dry soil, low humidity and gusty winds can increase our fire danger especially out in the fields when using farm equipment to harvest.

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