Northwest Iowa — Despite the ample rainfall that fell in parts of northwest Iowa this week as part of the derecho that blew through, the dry area seems to be expanding rather than shrinking.
The National Drought Monitor, housed at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln reported that the area of extreme drought in Plymouth and Woodbury counties has expanded, and now covers most of Plymouth County and nearly half of Cherokee County as well. One of the reasons that no improvement was shown is that while the new maps come out on Thursday, the data is recorded Tuesday to Tuesday, so we shall see if the next report, due out on Thursday, July 14th shows any improvement.
In addition to the area of extreme drought expanding, the area in our four-county area that’s marked “very dry” also expanded. It now includes more of Lyon County and the entirety of Osceola County.
The precip outlook doesn’t look too great for the next little while either for the Sheldon area. As of Friday afternoon, our rain chances ranged from slight to 50/50 for the individual days of the upcoming week. The 6-to-10-day outlook also looks dry with chances likely that it will be hotter than normal. Drier than normal conditions are also slightly favored in the 6-to-10-day timeframe, according to the National Weather Service.
