In general, northern Missouri has continued to receive timely rains and crops look good as reported by MU Extension Field Specialists in Agronomy. However, for much of the state the situation is different, and the rains stopped in early June.

Lack of rainfall combined with high evapotranspiration rates are concerning. The 2022 evapotranspiration rates in Columbia, MO, are starting to look like rates observed in drought years when compared to non-drought years (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Evapotranspiration rates of 2022 (orange line) compared to the last 11 years.

Water losses are approximately 0.25 per day, and the forecasted precipitation is not encouraging (Figure 2). Less than 0.25 inches of rain are predicted for most of the state through Monday.

Figure 2 Forecasted precipitation accumulation through Monday June 27, 2022. Map generated by NOAA - http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/day1-3.shtml

Air temperatures will remain warm through most of the weekend, and may reach triple digits on Saturday, which would set records. A strong cold front moves in on Sunday and will cool temperatures into the 80's.

The National Drought Mitigation Center is tracking these conditions. Please consider helping track conditions in your region by contributing a report of your field observations to the Drought Impacts website (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Share the impacts of drought on your field by visiting https://droughtimpacts.unl.edu/Tools/ConditionMonitoringObservations.aspx and submitting a report.

For real-time weather data visit the Missouri Mesonet website (mesonet.missouri.edu).

Header image of drought stricken corn field courtesy of Kent Weakley via Shutterstock