Wednesday's update showed that the dry conditions intensified sharply in Oklahoma, where 90.5 percent of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought – a spike of 19 percentage points.
The amount of South Dakota in those two classifications rose more than 8 percentage points to 63.32 percent, reflecting the fact that rainfall from south-central Nebraska northward to mid-South Dakota has been less than 25 percent of normal over the past three months.
Little changed in much of the rest of middle America, where 96 percent of Nebraska and nearly 78 percent of Kansas remain gripped by extreme or exceptional drought, the USDA's Eric Luebehusen wrote in Wednesday's update.
The stubborn drought isn't likely to relax its grip any time soon, with light showers expected in the Mississippi Valley and southern Texas later this week, Luebehusen wrote. "Otherwise, dry, warm conditions are expected across the remainder of the contiguous U.S., affording most drought areas little – if any – relief over the next five to seven days.''
Many farmers are worrying about their winter wheat.
Most of that crop has emerged, though the parched conditions continue to punish it. Twenty-six percent of those plantings are considered in poor or very poor shape, twice the status from the same time last year, the USDA said last week.
In Kansas, the nation's top wheat producer, 97 percent of the latest crop has germinated, but one-quarter of those plantings are considered poor or very poor.
The situation is far worse in South Dakota, where intensifying conditions have allowed just 60 percent of its winter wheat to emerge, with nearly two-thirds of that crop rated in those two worst classifications. FG
—AP Newsfinder
