http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/

v 2.4.3.0

We have had no moisture in over a month, 90-100 degree temperatures, and numerous high wind days, that have aided in drying us out. The last miserable amount of rain was on the 5th of August, and that was only .05". The dust was blowing within an hour. This is the 2nd year that we have produced no hay, and that we have had to haul water to our livestock. The subsoil moisture is nonexistent due to the last 2 years of drought conditions. The grazing conditions are desperate! An example of this is when my husband moved 100 plus pairs of cows a couple days ago. He kicked them across a dam bank, and went back to push up the back end, the cows had gone into the dry dam and started to graze on cockle burrs. Equally frustrating is that he then drove his motorcycle into the dam bed to push them out--not something that you can do even in a moderately dry year. Labor Day weekend, we were in the 90s and windy, it cooled down to 80s on Monday and Tuesday but then the temperature went back to the middle 90s with wind on Friday, Saturday, and today. This is September--I don't think anything is improving for us! From Butte County, South Dakota, on September 11, 2017