South Dakota is facing one of its worst droughts in recorded history. With three-fourths of the state experiencing severe, extreme or exceptional drought, rain is needed to improve conditions. But as SDPB’s Cassie Bartlett reports, the precipitation outlook for the rest of the year is grim.
State climatologist Dennis Todey says a dry September means the state has already missed out on some fall rain. He says there’s a better chance of precipitation during October. Todey says to fix drought issues by next summer, the rain pattern needs to dramatically change this fall. He adds while the state would benefit from heavy snow fall, it’s not likely that will happen.
“Right now we don’t have a strong signal on what the winter’s going to bring for us. We have a weak El Niño that’s going to impact us this winter, that right now is trending the outlook toward a little warmer than average for the winter, at least initially. There’s no strong signal on precipitation. If El Niño does hold on through the end of winter, there is a little hint of wetter late winter, early spring, but it’s not a very strong signal,” Todey says.
Todey says current drought conditions will carry over to next year. He says their severity will depend on how much rain patterns change. For South Dakota Public Broadcasting, I’m Cassie Bartlett.