Drought expands in spite of recent rains

Some beneficial rainfall this week wasn't enough to budge the severe to extreme drought conditions across much of the southern half of our region. 

Extreme drought conditions (level 4 out of 5) expanded across westernmost Kentucky. Ballard is the only county that has no portion listed as under extreme drought.

A band of moderate drought (level 3 out of 5) links the Ohio River and Mississippi River counties, and the rest of southernmost Illinois is under moderate drought.

There was some improvement further north in areas that received 2" or more in the past week. 

Even with that, the 6-month period from November through April will officially be the second-driest on record in Paducah (13.89"), Cape Girardeau (13.77"), and Carbondale (11.56"). 

Average rainfall for that 6-month period is uually around 22-26 inches.