Spring rain still helping state to recover from drought
Almost three-quarters of Wisconsin is no longer in a drought, as April and early May rainfall has alleviated an almost-yearlong drought.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor report, which measures drought conditions, says 72% of the state is in a no-drought condition, up from 57% a week ago.
“Right now, in Wisconsin, we’re looking at a pretty small drought coverage compared to even what we had seen in the last month,” said Curtis Riganti, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center.
The drought has been steadily improving since last summer and fall, when it covered almost the entire state. In late September, 98% of Wisconsin was in some level of drought or abnormally dry condition. Now, it’s 28% of the state.
Riganti said the main improvements came in the northern regions, along with portions of west central Wisconsin near the Mississippi River. He said many areas in those regions got between 1½ and 2 inches of rain.
Those areas are also where most of the state’s drought remains.
According to the drought monitor map, in southwestern and south central Wisconsin, portions of Richland, Vernon, Juneau, Adams, Marquette, Columbia and Sauk counties remain in a severe drought.
“You do see some significant long-term precipitation deficits … especially northwest of Madison,” Riganti
said. “That’s where we still have that moderate and severe drought.”
The drought recovery is part of one of the state’s worst in the period since the U.S. Drought Monitor started in 2000, he said. There have been others, including in 2021 to 2022 and in the mid- to late 2000s, but those were typically not as severe, he said.
“It really started to get going in early June 2023 and really started taking off into the fall,” Riganti said. “That’s one of the more significant events.”