Drought in Missouri, October 1 to 31, 2022

Drought conditions gradually expanded and worsened across southeast Missouri through the last week of the month. The drought was classified as extreme across the southeast corner of the state, from Cape Girardeau and Dexter east to the Mississippi River, including New Madrid. The remainder of southeast Missouri was classified as severe drought. Most crops were in the process of being harvested, so agricultural impacts were very limited. However, pastures were in poor or very poor condition. This forced farmers to begin feeding hay to cattle, which was likely to become in short supply in the winter months. Stock ponds ran low or completely dried up. The wildfire danger rose to critical levels on a few days where windy conditions coincided with very low humidity. Bans on outdoor burning were imposed in much of the region. Some locally beneficial rain arrived at the end of the month. Even so, most locations were still 3 to over 6 inches below normal on rainfall since September 1. One of the most significant impacts was very low water levels on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Parts of the Mississippi River reached all-time low levels, nearly forcing the river transportation industry to a halt. Dredging helped restore navigation channels to a depth sufficiently deep for river traffic to resume in a limited capacity. On Saturday, October 15, 2022, the Mississippi River at New Madrid, MO, fell to -5.45 feet. This was the lowest observed river stage on record at New Madrid, where observations began in 1879.