Kentucky drought-free for first time since last May

Republished from WEKU.

After plenty of rain recently, Kentucky is drought-free. That’s according to the latest map from the National Centers for Environmental Information. Pete Geogerian is a meteorologist and hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson. He said portions of the state faced varying levels of drought for the last several months.

“This was just due to kind of long, longer-term dryness that began last fall. And that kind of carried over at times into the winter months. And fortunately, we’ve had some pretty good shots of rain over the last one to two months that have really kind of put the drought to bed for now.”

The end of drought status bodes well for farmers — and bad for forest fires.

“With soils starting to recover and stream just having more, you know, more normal water levels for this time of year, it’s good on multiple fronts.”

The outreach manager of the Kentucky Mesonet and Climate Center at Western Kentucky University said this is the first time Kentucky has been drought-free since May 9 of last year.

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Originally published by WEKU.

Republished with permission.

https://www.weku.org/the-commonwealth/2024-02-19/kentucky-drought-free-for-first-time-since-last-may