Drought conditions downgraded to moderate; lawn services, farmers, golf courses feeling effect of rain

JOPLIN, Mo. If you think you are having a hard time staying on top of your mowing, you should talk to Paul Horton, of the Lawn Guy. He takes care of 150 lawns. When conditions for mowing are favorable, like they were late last week, he has two crews mowing from sunrise to sunset.

We have to work around it. It gets too wet, he said. In our case, most of the yards are already irrigated. They get so saturated you cant get on them, and these are nice yards. When its dry, we go like gangbusters. We mow as much as we can.

When the mowing season started in April, it was really dry. Horton is thankful for that now.

If we would have had normal rain in April and then the rain weve had for the last two weeks, we would have been really sunk, he said.

In early May, the Joplin area and parts of Southeast Kansas were classified as being in severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The deficit for the year was more than 9 inches.

Nearly two-thirds of the moisture that Joplin has received this year has fallen in the last few weeks. The rain started falling in mid-May, which logged 4.77 inches. So far this month, 3.41 inches have been recorded. Joplin has received only 12.12 inches since the beginning of the year. The deficit stands at 8.86 inches.

Last Thursday, because conditions had improved so dramatically, the U.S. Drought Monitor downgraded Joplins drought to moderate.

Horton is not the only one feeling the impact of so much water.

Scott Garrie, manager of Schifferdecker Golf Course, said, We use less water to irrigate. The rain helps in that regard, but on the flip side, it restricts our maintenance the things that need to be completed. Its hard to mow without rutting when its this wet.

And when its raining, people arent playing.

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Drought conditions downgraded to moderate; lawn services, farmers, golf courses feeling effect of rain