According to today's Drought Monitor report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a storm system over the Midwest and Great Lakes over the weekend did little to halt widespread degradation of conditions across the Midwest.
Although some locations did experience modest improvements, mainly in areas seeing in excess of 2 inches of rainfall, degradation to moderate drought (D1) and expansion of abnormal dryness (D0) is widespread across the Corn Belt, the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and the Upper Midwest.
High rates of evaporation from soils and vegetation over the past 1 to 2 months have resulted in large losses to soil moisture, with stream flows also dropping significantly across many of these same areas (falling below the 10th percentile of the historical distribution, particularly across the southern Great Lakes and the Corn Belt).
There are many reports of browning and stressed vegetation, with several producers already resorting to supplemental feeding for their livestock due to reduced forage. Loss of yield remains a large concern for many.