Deep snow that blanketed central Ohio on Monday was icing on the sweet news that the drought is virtually over for Licking County and much of Ohio.
The drought of 2024 is a distant memory for most Ohioans, but extreme dry conditions – some of the worst Licking County had seen in decades – left farmers and many others deeply concerned about their livelihoods.
The final U.S. Drought Monitor report for 2024, on Dec. 31, showed no drought conditions for Licking County and listed only a sliver of the southeastern corner of the county as “abnormally dry.”
Much of Ohio looks similar to Licking County on the latest Drought Monitor map, although portions of a dozen eastern Ohio counties to the north and south of I-70 are still in moderate to extreme drought. And five more counties are still considered to be abnormally dry. The same abnormally dry conditions also exist in all or parts of 20 counties in the northwestern corner of the state.
| Read more: Green grass and a full rain barrel don’t mean the drought is over
Despite rain late in the fall and outward appearances that life was back to normal, the drought lingered deep into December. And the farming community is feeling the effects of the drought, said Dean Kreager, educator for agriculture and natural resources at the Ohio State University Agricultural Extension Service Licking County office in Newark.
Soil moisture levels are diminished, he said, especially 15 to 20 inches beneath the surface. That causes some concern for pastures and hayfields, he said.
“They took such a hard beating in October when it was so dry,” Kreager said. “That’s usually when they put energy into their roots to survive the winter. They may bounce back, but some may not.”
Some farmers are still buying hay for their livestock because their own hayfields produced so little last summer, he said, and a few farmers southeast of Licking County are still hauling water to their animals.
It’s too soon to say whether there will be residual effects of the 2024 drought when crop farmers are ready to plant in the spring.
That the Drought Monitor is showing no more drought here “doesn’t mean it’s all over for farmers,” Kreager said.
In August, after weeks without rain, the situation was dire for some farmers in Licking County and across hard-hit southeastern Ohio who watched their crops wither and had to haul water to livestock on land where streams and wells had dried up.
| Read more: Outlook grim for farmers as drought gripping parts of Licking County is expected to worsen
In the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor summary, Rocky Bilotta, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Centers for Environmental Information, and Brad Rippey, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wrote that “precipitation fell across much of the U.S. this week, with heavier amounts (more than 1 inch) falling across large portions of the Northwest U.S. and from south-central U.S. to the Ohio Valley. … Above-normal precipitation supported drought improvements across large portions of the South and Midwest, and in parts of the Pacific Northwest, Midwest and Southeast.”
About the Midwest, Bilotta and Rippey wrote that above-normal temperatures, ranging between 5 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, combined with weekly rainfall totals between 200% to 600% above normal to help improve conditions at the end of the year.
“Severe drought was removed from northern Indiana and improved in Southeast Ohio, while moderate drought was improved in large portions of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and in parts of Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri. Below-normal precipitation was observed over western portions of Minnesota and Iowa, and in parts of northern Michigan, Southeast Ohio and eastern Kentucky.”
The National Weather Service offices in Wilmington, in southwestern Ohio; Charleston, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh – all of which cover parts of Ohio – all reported early in December that “conditions have improved significantly across the region, with no future Drought Information Statements expected in the foreseeable future.”
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.