Drought Continues Growing Out West, Steady In Central South Dakota

Drought Continues Growing Out West, Steady In Central South Dakota

PIERRE, (KCCR) — Drought continues to worsen in western South Dakota. In this week’s update of the U-S Drought Monitor for South Dakota an area of severe drought has cropped up across the Black Hills of western Pennington and extreme northwest Custer. County. Pennington County is nearly 12-percent in severe drought with almost 24-percent in moderate; 66-percent abnormally dry and 33-percent in no drought. Custer County is almost three-percent is in severe drought with 73-percent in moderate drought and all of the county is at least abnormally dry. Abnormally dry conditions are currently found in four central South Dakota counties. Sully County is unchanged from last week at 43-percent with Hyde County at six-percent, also unchanged. Dewey County and Ziebach Counties are unchanged as well at 39-percent and 17-percent respectively. Overall for the less than a half percent is under severe drought. Just shy of 10-percent of South Dakota sits in moderate drought with 28-percent abnormally dry and 71-percent of the state still drought free.