After beginning the year with 32% of Michigan being covered in moderate to exceptional drought, the state’s drought has nearly vanished, just in time for sugar beet and field crop planting season.
And for Brad Rippey, one of the authors of the U.S. Drought Monitor, the fact that Michigan has lost nearly all of its drought isn’t too surprising given the snow this winter.
But what’s been surprising to Rippey is how fast drought coverage across the country has fallen in the past five months. Rippey said it’s been cut in half.
According to Rippey, the last time this kind of drought recovery happened, it took over two years.
"We dropped below 30% US Drought coverage, just in this week's issuance of the US Drought Monitor," said Rippey in a phone with WCMU. "And so that was a really quick five months recovery from that extended drought greater than 60% that we had seen last autumn."
Michigan’s corn and soybean farmers are hoping to get their planting done before the end of the month, while sugar beet farmers want seeds in the ground as soon as possible.
