The ongoing drought has landed in record territory.
South Dakota State Climatologist Laura Edwards says the dry trend accelerated in the summer months…

The National Weather Service reports that the April through mid-August period is the driest on record in Yankton with five point six inches of rain, breaking the record set in 1936 of six point six four inches. Tyndall, Vermillion and Sioux City have had the second driest spring and summer on record.

Edwards says crops are showing the stress…

Edwards says making comparisons to the 1930s shows how serious it is…

Edwards says in 2019, many locations had their wettest year on record, in some cases approaching fifty inches of precipitation.