Almost the entire state of Illinois is very dry or in some form of drought after last year’s lack of precipitation, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor released last month, when it found the state’s average total precipitation was 31.78 inches, about 9 inches below normal.

However. Last spring had significant rainfall in southern Illinois, but the northern half missed out. For several weeks in the summer, precipitation increased although that included pockets of very heavy rains. Dry weather returned in the fall, when just 3 inches was recorded statewide, less than half of typical autumn precipitation.

“It was the top 10 driest year on record in Peoria and Springfield,” State Climatologist Tarent Ford, a Roanoke native, told Farm Week magazine.