Temperatures are expected to remain above normal over the next few weeks throughout the central Missouri River Basin. In South Dakota, the South Eastern corner of the state is above normal precipitation. But elsewhere, like in the Black Hills, drought conditions are expected to persist.
Doug Kluck is with the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. He says abnormal dryness in the Black Hills region is expected to worsen short term, and may reach a D-2 level of severe drought.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see some more sort of dryness develop over the next two weeks and we have more of those above normal temperate in terms of the basin. It’s not surprising this time of year, droughts can happen really fast-sometimes we call them flash droughts when it gets really hot and winds pick up and that kind of thing,” says Kluck.
Kluck says rainfall levels are hard to predict for the month of June.
“As far as precipitation goes, really there is no indication- any signal that was going to tell us whether it was going to wet or dry over the entire basin so there’s equal chances for above, below, near normal for the month of June,” says Kluck.
Kluck says the remaining effects of an El Niño system in the regional are minimal. But the Missouri River Basin is under a La Niña watch, which could bring the reverse of an El Niño with cooler weather and more precipitation later this fall.