6Drought and abnormally dry conditions continue to improve across most of Indiana (Figure 1). There seem to be a few counties – particularly along the western border – that have not been getting as much rain as elsewhere. Those areas are still at least abnormally dry through August 8, 2023. However, additional rain events over the past several days and over the weekend should help those few remaining areas that are on the drier side. The climate outlooks for precipitation continue to favor a relatively weak probability for above-normal rain. This seems to have been the ongoing trend for the past month and is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
Figure 1. U.S. Drought Monitor status for Indiana based upon conditions through Tuesday, August 8, 2023.
Temperatures have been much more seasonable, lately. Most of August typically has high temperatures in the low-to-mid 80s and we can continue to expect that for this year for at least another week. After that, climate outlooks are slightly favoring above-normal temperatures but it is too soon to know how extreme this might be and for how long. With these seasonal temperatures, accumulated modified growing degree days continue to be between 50-160 units below average for the April 15 through August 9th period (Figures 2 and 3).
Figure 2. Modified growing degree day (50°F / 86°F) accumulation from April 15-August 9, 2023.
Figure 3. Modified growing degree day (50°F / 86°F) accumulation from April 15-August 9, 2023, represented as the departure from the 1991-2020 climatological average.