Continued rains across the state brought more improvement in the latest US Drought Monitor for Iowa. DNR Hydrologist Tim Hall says the two most severe categories of drought are no longer found on the map.
Nearly 67% of the state now has no form of drought, which compares to only three percent with no drought in January. Hall says the northeast part of the state is still the driest area, but it’s a lot better now.
And that’s even drier than the dustbowl years of the 30s or the drought of the 1950s. So they were very much in a whole drought wise, and it’s just going to take those parts of the state longer to recover.” Hall says his discussion with the state climatologist indicates we could see spring flip from record dry to record wet conditions this year.
The plentiful rain has some farmers worried about finishing planting, and at times it leaves ponds of water in fields. Hall says he’s not worried about that at this point.
Hall says it’s good to see the groundwater and stream flows come back to normal for the first time in a long time. And he says June is normally the wettest month of the year, so the pattern is likely to continue.
