– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension
![](https://u.osu.edu/beef/files/2024/08/082224map-300x232.png)
Several SE Ohio counties have reached D3-Extreme Drought designation.
Dry conditions have continued, despite all our best efforts to put in requests for rain. This past week, all of Noble County along with several other SE Ohio counties moved from the classification of D2- Severe Drought to D3- Extreme Drought. What does that mean, exactly, other than that it is really dry?
Well, it means that a group of experts have evaluated the changing conditions that have resulted from the lack of precipitation to create the United States Drought Monitor Mapping System and determined that parts of Southeast Ohio have sustained drought conditions for so long that the impacts of drought will have an increased impact on the resiliency of the land to bounce back from drought conditions, to the point that the potential economic damage could be substantial.
The Drought Monitor website explains, “The Continue reading D3 Drought- What does that mean?