Recent rain has done little to improve drought

QUAD CITIES, Iowa/Ill. (KWQC) - Most of the TV6 area is in at least moderate drought, with severe and extreme drought conditions farther to our northwest.

Keep in mind the drought monitor takes into account rain through 7 a.m. Tuesday. So this does not take into account the rain that rolled through later in the afternoon and evening.

Regardless, it was not enough to bus the drought.

So far this month there has been a little more than an inch of rain at the Quad Cities International Airport in Moline. That’s running about 6 tenths of an inch below average, as we are supposed to have more than an inch and a half at the midpoint of the month.

As far as the year of 2023 goes, that’s different. Normally we should have about 30 inches of precipitation for the year, and we have barely had 19. We are running almost 11 inches below average.

In Burlington, for the year precipitation is near normal, but it’s the dryness over the last couple months has led to drier conditions.

It’s this time last month that we were making some improvements with beneficial rainfall, but the last several weeks have been abnormally dry, therefore the drought conditions have worsened.

In Iowa, 99.81% of the state is experiencing at least abnormally dry conditions.

Most of the state is experiencing moderate drought, of the moderate drought, 72.99% are in severe drought, with 25.51% in extreme drought.

In Illinois, some more drastic numbers. Last week, 71% of the state was in abnormally dry drought, now it’s more than 80% of the state, but the real impacts of the drought generally start at moderate drought.

Click here to find out if there is any more rain in the First Alert Forecast.

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