Despite recent rain, much of Kentucky still feeling the impacts of drought-like conditions

Drought-like conditions continue to impact Kentucky creating major problems for farmers

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Normally during the summer, your trees and grass should be a bright green color. This year, however, they may be looking more brown and dry.

Megan Schargorodski, Interim Director of the Kentucky Climate Center, has been looking closely at why drought-like conditions blossomed so quickly this year in Kentucky.

“As you look at June, we didn’t have a whole lot of rainfall, and unfortunately, that made everything progress really quickly. We had rapid intensification of drought, which is characterized as a flash drought which you may hear occasionally, and that led to a real worsening really quickly.”

Kentucky’s average rainfall for June is 4.7″. This year, only a handful of locations met that threshold. In addition to a lack of rainfall, temperatures have been running well above average across most of the state, with soil moisture continuing to decrease.

Those feeling the highest impacts from the drought are farmers who work in agriculture, struggling to keep their plants and crops alive. Schargorodski says corn is one of the hardest hit crops.

“Unfortunately, this really bad timing for corn. It is when the corn is forming inside the plant, and so, unfortunately, if we are not getting timely rainfall right now, and the corn is trying to form, it’s really bad for the crop.

Schargorodski says there is no telling when the drought will end, but the long-term forecasts, such as those from the Climate Prediction Center, suggest more hot and dry weather will continue through this summer.