U.S. drought eases in some areas, but Plains still suffer

By Carey Gillam
Jan 17 (Reuters) - A series of rain showers helped ease
drought conditions in parts of the United States over the last
week, but drought expanded slightly in parts of the U.S. Plains,
according to a report issued Thursday.
Officials in north-central Oklahoma declared a state of
emergency due to record low reservoir conditions and public and
private interests throughout the central United States hardest
hit by drought were examining measures to try to cope with
ongoing drought.
Roughly 58.87 percent of the contiguous United States was in
at least "moderate" drought as of Jan. 15, an improvement from
60.26 percent a week earlier, according to a "Drought Monitor"
report issued Thursday by a consortium of federal and state
climatology experts.
But severe drought blanketed 87.25 percent of the High
Plains, up from 86.20 percent the week before, and 61.27 percent
of the region was classified in extreme drought, up from 60.25
percent.

Fully 100 percent of the land area in Kansas, Colorado,
Nebraska and Oklahoma was engulfed in severe drought or worse,
according to the Drought Monitor.
While the Plains remained parched, southern portions of the
Midwest received heavy rainfall during the past seven days. The
Drought Monitor report said substantial precipitation was
concentrated over southern Illinois, Indiana, western Kentucky,
and southeastern Missouri with totals ranging from two to five
inches.
The U.S. drought, considered the worst in 50 years,
continues to stress winter-seeded crops such as hard red winter
wheat and has caused shipping problems on Midwest rivers for a
range of commodities.
Twelve to 18 inches of precipitation, or three to five times
more than normal, is needed in the western Corn Belt to ease
soil dryness after last summer's drought, according to Don
Keeney, a senior agricultural meteorologist with Cropcast
weather service.
Last summer's extreme weather locked two-thirds of the U.S.
continental land mass in severe drought, cutting production of
the biggest crop, corn, by 27 percent from early-season
estimates.

(Reporting by Carey Gillam in Kansas City; Editing by Chizu
Nomiyama)