Washington DC (Northwestiowanow.com) — For the first time since September 10th, a portion of the KICD Broadcast area is out of the drought area. In the weekly update from USDA Thursday morning all of Pocahontas County, the Southeast half of Buena Vista County, and the Southeast corner of Palo Alto County are listed as drought free.

The rest of Buena Vista and Palo Alto Counties; all of Emmet, Dickinson, Osceola Counties; and nearly all of Cherokee County are in the D-Zero Abnormally Dry category.
Most ofClay County is Abnormally dry with about the western third in the D-1 Moderate Drought category; and nearly all of O’Brien County is considered to be in Moderate drought.

Half of the state is now considered drought free, up from 28 percent last Thursday. 43 percent is abnormally dry compared to 59 percent. 7 percent is experiencing moderate drought, down from 13 percent on April 22nd.