The Nation : Little Relief Seen for Drought Sufferers

Drought persisted in the Midwest and portions of the South and the National Weather Service said that any relief would be temporary and spotty, at least until next week. A storm system that dumped nearly two inches of rain on much of Iowa was not expected to deliver much moisture to other states it will reach, said meteorologist Alan Morrison of the weather service’s Chicago office. Rainfall has been less than normal for more than six weeks across much of the corn and soybean regions of the Midwest, officials said. Another 60 counties in Indiana were declared disaster areas by the federal government because of the drought conditions, bringing the total of such designated counties in the state to 84. Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa each has more than three dozen counties covered by the federal declaration, which allows haying or grazing on land otherwise left fallow in a federal crop-reduction program.