Wet winter is not easing some drought worries

VERNON (WITI) -- Dan Craig is like most farmers in southeast Wisconsin, he's praying for a true Wisconsin winter. Craig runs Maple Mound farms in the Town of Vernon.

"I'd like to see those cornstalks where I can't see them," he says, referring to the top few inches of stalks still sticking out above the snow.

Craig says the problem this winter is that so much of the moisture is just running off into the lakes and streams, and not being absorbed into the ground. "What's happening now is we've got a frozen layer that is basically a big sheet that doesn't let moisture move into the subsoil," Craig explained.

But FOX6 Meteorologist Justin Zollitsch says some of Wisconsin is actually not even in a drought anymore, though most of us are still abnormally dry. Zollitsch says the amount of snowfall this winter has been below normal, but with everything else, it puts us above normal moisture levels. "It's not just the snow it's everything that falls, the snow, the sleet, the hail, the freezing rain, those things don't sound wonderful, but they certainly are helping out with the drought situation," Zollitsch says.

Craig says he's not complaining, he just knows a thick blanket of snow now, will mean a lot less worry come summer. He said, "I want to see a snowstorm that everybody hates. And I'd like to see ti go away very slowly."