MITCHELL, SD (Mitchell Now) — The drought has finally broken for the worse in the Mitchell area.
Thursday’s U.S. Drought Monitor update shows Davison and Hanson Counties completely mired in severe drought, the second stage on a four-tier system. Just last week, the northern 47% of Davison and about a third of Hanson were only in moderate drought. That had been the pattern for several weeks.
Severe drought has crawled into southern Sanborn and Miner Counties, overtaken all of Aurora County and much of Brule County. There has been a worsening along the Minnesota border through Moody and Brookings Counties. Extreme drought, the third level of drought, now engulfs almost all of Custer, Fall River, and Lawrence Counties in the Black Hills, along with a significant chunk of Pennington County.
Only ten percent of the state is without any stage of drought, but there is a silver lining. A line of severe storms dumped a ton of rain after soil readings were taken on Tuesday.
Grenville received seven inches of precipitation between Thursday and Friday. De Smet was drenched with 3.38,” with Huron recording 1.92 inches. Woonsocket and Chamberlain both got at least 1.25 inches. In many cases, those are drought busting numbers.
Even areas that missed out on the rain event have at least been cooler in recent days. Seasonal to well-below-average temps are forecast through most of next week.