{"id":3865,"date":"2025-08-14T10:34:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T15:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/running-dry-on-data-missouri-drought-hard-to-measure-2\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T10:34:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T15:34:46","slug":"running-dry-on-data-missouri-drought-hard-to-measure-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/running-dry-on-data-missouri-drought-hard-to-measure-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Running dry on data: Missouri drought hard to measure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/90-5-e1755185716861-1024x614.webp\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Missouri State Climatologist Zack Leasor examines weather reports to assess drought from his office in Columbia on May 29 (Harshawn Ratanpal\/KBIA).<\/p>\n<p>After a spring and summer of wet conditions throughout almost the entire state, drought is returning to Missouri.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/DmData\/DataTables.aspx?state,mo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">About 10%<\/a> of Missouri is now classified as abnormally dry<b>, <\/b>according to the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/CurrentMap\/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?MO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">U.S. Drought Monitor<\/a>, a map that tracks drought and updates weekly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hadn\u2019t had a week in July or August with a map that had no (drought) since 2019, so it was almost kind of rare to have that little drought concern across the whole state for what we see there,\u201d State Climatologist Zack Leasor said. \u201cBut if you look at the past 30 days, there are some spots that are starting to dry out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most of the dryness is appearing in the southern part of the state. While the map as only recorded dryness in the state for about a week, Leasor said he thinks some areas, particularly in the southeast Missouri Bootheel, have been drier for longer.<\/p>\n<p>As state climatologist, Leasor is tasked with drafting recommendations for Missouri\u2019s weekly drought assessment. When he was in the region last week, he saw drier conditions than what the Drought Monitor had been reflecting. That\u2019s because drought assessment involves a variety of factors \u2013 including rainfall, streamflow and soil moisture \u2013 and there\u2019s some data gaps in the Bootheel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(The Bootheel) is really characterized by high concentration of agriculture, but also it\u2019s characterized by really cheap access to groundwater that recharges quite frequently,\u201d Leasor said. \u201cSo as a result, you have a lot of irrigated agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By irrigating their land with more water, farmers can cause the data obtained from soil gauges to be unreliable, Leasor said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn addition to that, the Bootheel doesn\u2019t have a lot of natural hydrology,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we talk about lakes or river systems there, a lot of it is kind of engineered, so not a lot of stream monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leasor is involved in<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.drought.gov\/news\/missouri-leverages-partnerships-boost-soil-moisture-data-early-drought-and-flood-warnings-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\"> a project<\/a> to install more soil moisture gauges across the state through a collaboration between the University of Missouri and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.<\/p>\n<p><em>This story was originally published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kbia.org\/kbia-news\/2025-08-13\/running-dry-on-data-missouri-drought-hard-to-measure\" target=\"_blank\">KBIA<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Missouri State Climatologist Zack Leasor examines weather reports to assess drought from his office in Columbia on May 29 (Harshawn Ratanpal\/KBIA). After a spring and summer of wet conditions throughout almost the entire state, drought is returning to Missouri. About 10% of Missouri is now classified as abnormally dry, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Running dry on data: Missouri drought hard to measure - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/running-dry-on-data-missouri-drought-hard-to-measure-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Running dry on data: Missouri drought hard to measure - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Missouri State Climatologist Zack Leasor examines weather reports to assess drought from his office in Columbia on May 29 (Harshawn Ratanpal\/KBIA). 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