As planting continues across farm country, it’s a good time to evaluate our weather up to this point in the year. Meteorologist Brad Rippey with USDA provided farm broadcasters with an update.
“We still see significant drought on the US landscape. More than a third of the country currently, 37% experiencing drought. According to US Drought Monitor, with the main regions being the northern plains and the Southwest. We’ve seen about a half dozen significant outbreaks of severe weather, primarily across the south and the lower Midwest. And already in 2025 we have dealt with a lot of wildfires, the Southern California wildfires in January, where this year is hard to believe it seems like so long ago. But we’ve also seen big fires in the East and the southern plains.”
There have been a number of disaster events already in 2025.
“The major flooding about a month ago, when it was peaking, southern and eastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, Western and Northern Kentucky, Southeastern Missouri, Southern Illinois and Indiana and southwestern Ohio, all experiencing significant, moderate to major flooding. The Ohio River from Cincinnati down to Owensboro, Kentucky reached its highest level in 28 years, going back to March of 1997 and thankfully for the flood protection that we have, we did not see any major city or large town disasters, but plenty of low land agricultural flooding all through that region.”
And in spite of recent rains, especially in the Southeast, dry conditions still persist across much of the country.
“37% of the continental US currently still experiencing drought. That is down from a peak of 54% last autumn, but three big areas focusing on that entirety of the Southwest, all the way from the southwest through parts of West and South Central Texas, a pesky area of drought across the northern plains and environs. And then kind of watching the East Coast, we’ve seen a lot of relief, and this rain is helping, but we have seen some significant drought in Florida so far this year.”