Don't let today's rain for you.

Kentucky still has a drought problem.

Take a look at the newest map from the U.S. drought monitor.

This was finished Tuesday and released today.

The light orange is moderate drought.

37 counties are now under a burn ban as a result.

Our Kristi Dalton talked to an expert about Kentucky's dry weather and a record breaking August.

Matt Dixon joins us, the director of UK AG Weather Center.

So, Matt, what does this new drought update tell us?

Yeah, drought has officially returned to the Bluegrass State for the fourth straight fall here in Kentucky.

The latest update to the U.S. drought monitor this morning has 57% of the state now considered in moderate drought.

The rest of the state pretty much considered abnormally dry.

This follows a month of August where rainfall was very scarce.

Our data in the weather center shows the state average 0.97 inches.

Of course, the fall season, it's supposed to get dry in Kentucky, but not this dry.

That would be two and a half inches below normal.

And while the official data hasn't came out yet, it's pretty safe to say this was the driest August ever recorded in Kentucky history.

Oh, wow.

And that's over 130 years worth of record now.

So this followed what was our third wettest January to July on record.

So you talk about taking a 180 degree turn and going straight to the driest August we've ever recorded so far, but we're seeing plenty of impacts start to rise on the agricultural side.

Did the heat wave make things worse?

Those hot temperatures, heat can definitely make things worse.

It's a double edged sword.

Increase evaporation, especially for the agricultural sector.

And but we've been lucky here past two or three weeks.

We've had some fall like temperatures usher into the region.

We had lows getting down to the forties, maybe some more recovery that night for livestock across the area and crops alike.

But a welcome sign for Kentucky at this time of year.

So yeah, and some of us had a little rain last night today maybe to again tomorrow night.

Is that going to make a difference?

It will make a difference, but not everybody saw the rain.

So the past three or four weeks once this drought really started.

So moisture has really been starting to go in the downward direction and it's really impacting crops across the area.

Grain crops could really use a drink, especially those that were planted later in the season.

This is especially the case for portions of western Kentucky.

Some of those areas have went over 40 days without any significant rainfall.

So crops are really being impacted.

Condition is really going in that downhill trajectory.

I looked at Kentucky, crop progress and condition report that came out on Monday and 23% of Kentucky soybeans are now considered poor to very poor quality across Kentucky.

So not great pastures are the same way.

You can drive around Kentucky, really starting to brown out.

And some producers have resorted to feeding supplemental hay that, hey, that was supposed to be reserved for the winter months.

We're feeding much earlier in the year.

This is the fourth straight fall this has happened.

And unfortunately, it just keeps on coming back to Kentucky.

But that's also going to impact those producers with their fall hay cutting.

So, again, that double edged sword aspect.

But and so wheat.

So it has a big impact on agriculture and farmers.

But also many counties are under burn bans, too.

I've noticed that that list getting longer.

What does that mean and why is that important?

Yeah, 37 counties are now under a burn ban, not not supposed to burn any material in those situations for for the agriculture agricultural sector, we'll want to be really careful when we're harvesting crops this fall.

One little spark on a piece of machinery, a piece of machinery that's hundreds of thousands of dollars can lead to some really bad consequences.

So we sent farmers, producers, you know, check those bearings, check those belts, make sure you don't have any dry material left on them.

Because, again, it just takes one quick spark and you can be in big trouble not only for the machinery, but if weather conditions are bad enough, that's going to spread to the entire field.

So, yeah, good point.

Okay.

So we will just be hoping for some more rain in the forecast to put a little dent in this.

Matt Dixon, thank you so much for your time.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.