The National Drought Monitor will release its updated map tomorrow. So far it’s been a very dry summer in southwest Missouri. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

The nationwide map is updated every Thursday and showed last week that about 20% of Missouri is considered to be in extreme drought. Nearly all of that area is in southwest Missouri, with the exception of a small sliver running east to west, south of Kansas City.

Even more stressing is that about 2.5% of Missouri last week was considered to be in extreme drought, or level 4 out of the 5 level drought numbering system the U.S drought Monitor uses.

All of the areas considered in extreme drought is located in southwest Missouri, including over 90% of Jasper county and an estimated 114,000 residents living in extreme drought conditions.

Over 48% of Barry county and nearly its 36,000 residents are also living in extreme drought. According to the National Weather Service, the next chance for precipitation in the area is Sunday afternoon.