BRANCH COUNTY, MI (WTVB) – The U.S. Drought Monitor reported on Thursday that areas considered to be in a severe drought have expanded in the last week and now includes the northern part of Branch County.
Historic impacts of a severe drought include low corn and soybean yields, stress on mature trees and low stream flows.
The severe drought includes all of Kalamazoo and Calhoun Counties as well as northern St. Joseph County and northwest Hillsdale County.
The report shows a third of the state is in a severe drought. Most of the area runs from Lake Michigan northeast to the Thumb region.
Nearly all of the lower peninsula is now in at least a moderate drought.
If conditions don’t improve, the next level would be an extreme drought, which hasn’t happened in Michigan for decades.
Parts of southeast Wisconsin and northeast Illinois were elevated to an extreme drought in Thursday’s update.
(Brandon James contributed to this report)
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