PIERRE — Areas of no drought continue to slowly expand west across South Dakota. At the same time however, the worst areas of drought are getting larger. No drought now expands into all but southeast Hand and southwest Hyde Counties and even into extreme eastern Hughes, Sully and Potter Counties. Abnormally dry conditions make up the southeast corner of Hand and southwest corner of Hyde County along with central Hughes, Sully and Potter County. Those abnormally dry areas extend across northern Dewey County and along the North Dakota/South Dakota border, which is new this week. Also new is an expansion of severe drought across most of Dewey County and into more of Meade and Pennington Counties. Extreme drought has expanded west into Meade County from Zeibach County and into southwest Stanley and northern Jackson County from Haakon County. Severe drought remains posted for nearly all of Stanley, southern Dewey, Jones, western and southeastern Lyman, southern Brule, central Mellette and northern Jackson Counties.
