South Dakota continues to see drought conditions into the beginning of the winter season. State climatologist Laura Edwards says water use has gone down for the past few months.
“The environment around us is pretty thirsty right now and it is losing water just by evaporation and water still is flowing through the soils and through the rivers. So, we are seeing some losses in moisture in the soils and around us. But right now, we're holding steady on the drought situation and it still seems to be the worst in the southeast corner of the state and parts of the southwest.”
Edwards says most of the significant impacts were seen in the summer and fall, where farmers and ranchers had water shortages. She says one upside for current conditions is the demand for cattle and livestock feed has gone down.
“It's been relatively easy for farmers to haul what they do need to out there because we haven't had really much for snow out across the state so far.”
Edwards says dryer conditions now will reduce flood risk in the spring.
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