Cold temperatures and limited frozen precipitation led to persistent conditions across the Midwest, outside of areas of localized changes. Cold conditions kept soils frozen across northern portions of the Midwest, limiting infiltration and preventing recent moisture or snowmelt from entering the hydrologic system. As a result, short-term improvements to soil moisture and streamflows were minimal. Western Michigan saw a localized improvement where another week of snowfall along the Lake Michigan shoreline, combined with improving longer-term precipitation indicators, supported modest recovery. Across parts of the western and central Midwest, minor degradations were introduced as conditions continued to dry, including the introduction of extreme drought (D3) in southwest Missouri along the Missouri-Oklahoma border. In these areas, precipitation during the past several weeks has been limited, and short- and mid-term precipitation deficits continued to grow, combined with declining soil moisture and below-normal streamflows.
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