Officials said Lake Decatur’s water level continues to drop and drought conditions persist in the Lake Decatur watershed as much of central Illinois has received below average rainfall since mid-August 2025.
Farmers rely on the Mississippi River to ship grain and bring them imported fertilizer and other critical inputs. But another year of low river levels means barge travel will be more expensive.
The lack of rain has led to moderate drought for nearly all of McLean County. The far southeastern tip of the county is in severe drought, along with Champaign-Urbana and eastern Illinois.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is developing a framework for assessing drought in a changing climate. It’s a difficult task, as what’s considered drought is often situational.
Drought has scorched much of the Midwest and Great Plains for the last four years. Wildlife is also reckoning with the dry conditions – which can change animal behavior and even push species out of some regions.
Programs that provide drought relief to farmers use the U.S. Drought Monitor to determine eligibility, but some experts say it doesn’t always capture local conditions. On a recent fall day, as Wilburn Harris did the rounds on his cattle farm in the Missouri town of Drexel, he was met with brown grass, cracked
Fall is typically a drier time of the year for the Great Plains and Midwest. But drought is once again rearing its head in much of the region, and experts are not seeing relief anytime soon. As Ralph Lents harvests corn and soybeans on his farm in southwest Iowa, he said some precipitation would be
Planting is well underway across the Midwest, but farmers are still grappling with dry conditions that led to lower than normal corn yields last fall. It’s the third year of a near historic drought for parts of the Corn Belt.
Farmers can apply for emergency loans after tornadoes and drought last spring.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cut off wheat exports, while drought conditions in the Great Plains will further reduce grain stocks. Reduced supplies could trickle down into higher prices for grocery list staples, such as bread and pasta. Global wheat supplies have been tightened from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and now the crop faces a domestic
Most of Illinois has had plenty of rain, but even with a few recent rains, much of the Great Plains are in a drought. Wildfires have swept across the grasslands and farmers are worried about how they’ll make it through the growing season. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s60/audio/2022/05/drought-in-plains-hpm-web2.wav Listen to this story here. Randy Uhrmacher is in his tractor,
Water is critical to America’s meat habit. Cows, pigs and chickens drink it. Farmers clean barns and cool animals with it. Meatpackers sanitize plants and wash their product with it. But, most importantly, water grows the crops needed to feed the millions of animals raised and slaughtered each year that end up on Americans’ tables.