Amount of winter wheat in drought unchanged

The U.S. winter wheat area in drought remained at 53% over the past week, unchanged from the previous week, according to USDA’s analysis of the U.S. Drought Monitor. However, the Drought Monitor was of Tuesday, Dec. 14, and does not take into account Wednesday’s high winds across the Plains and the Midwest.

Overall, there was some improvement drought conditions in the Northern Plains and Western United States. South Dakota dropped two percentage points to 78% of the state covered by abnormal dryness/drought, due to beneficial snowfall as the ground is not frozen yet.

Unseasonably warm temps and dry conditions continued to prevail in the Southern Plains. Texas had nearly 86% of the state covered by dryness/drought, up five points from the previous week. Oklahoma was 96% moisture-stressed, up three points from last week. Over half of Kansas (52%) faced moisture shortages, up five points from the previous week. Nebraska had 77% of its state in drought, compared to 70% last week. Colorado and Montana both still were 100% covered by drought.

Drought conditions in the western U.S. continued to creep eastward, with more of SRW wheat areas facing mostly mild moisture stress, primarily in southern areas.