Drought in Wisconsin, September 1 to 30, 2003

Drought conditions continued from August, 2003, through September 2003, across south-central and southeast Wisconsin. Much of this area was in a severe drought (D2) status during the first part of the month, however, beneficial rains fell during the period of September 12-14. Rainfalls of 3 to 5 inches from Lafayette County to Green Lake County (with a small area of 6 inches in southwest Iowa County and northwest Lafayette County) were enough to lower the drought rating from severe to moderate (D1) in this area. However, monthly rainfall totals of about 2 inches or less were recorded near Lake Michigan, which allowed the drought rating over southeast Wisconsin to remain at severe. The monthly rainfall at Madison's (Dane Co.) Truax Field was 4.24 inches, or 1.16 above normal. This was only the 3rd month of the entire year to date that had above normal rainfall. The other two months (May and July) were barely above normal in the rainfall department. At Milwaukee's (Milwaukee Co.) Mitchell Field, only 1.65 inches of rain fell during September, 2003, or 1.65 inches below normal. May, 2003 was the only month to date in 2003 with above normal rainfall at Milwaukee (0.59 inch above normal). Water levels in lakes, rivers, and streams remained below normal for the entire month, although they briefly rose on September 13th and 14th in response to the rains. Newspaper reports indicated that corn yields were expected to be in the 70 to 100 bushels per acre range, compared to a normal of 130 to 140. Soybean yields were expected to range from 20 to 30 bushels per acre, about 50% of normal. In fact, some farmers were not expecting to harvest much of anything in October. Some parts of south-central and southeast Wisconsin have only received half of their normal precipitation from November, 2002 through September, 2003. However, some spotty locations in 2003 have managed to pick up enough rain to have near average crop yields. Some farmers felt that the drought in 2003 was perhaps as bad as the 1988 drought, or worse, and that one would have to go back to 1933 to find a summer as dry as the 2003 summer. Throughout south-central and southeast Wisconsin, some trees continued to drop their leaves (without color) due to the continued dryness.