Northwest Iowa — A new map from the National Drought Mitigation Center shows dry conditions worsening here in western Iowa and in the central portion of the state.
Here in far northwest Iowa, The southwestern half of Lyon County, northern third of O’Brien County, and northern quarter of Sioux Counties are all listed as “Abnormally Dry”, while the southern two thirds of O’Brien County, southern three quarters of Sioux County, as well as all of Plymouth and Cherokee Counties are listed as being in a “Moderate Drought.”
State Climatologist Justin Glisan says he’s constantly asked about when and if any significant rainfall is coming to Iowa.
(As above) “The forecast models just have been off for some reason,” Glisan says. “When we expect rain out of Nebraska, it comes toward western Iowa and you can watch it on radar, it just sort of vanishes. Because of those dry conditions, there’s not enough moisture at the surface to really pop those storms up.”
Glisan says he remains hopeful the situation may change soon.
(As above) “If we look at our outlooks moving into next week, it looks like we’re starting to turn down the temperature dial,” he says, “and along with that, we’re trending towards near-normal rainfall moving into the first of August.”
A very hot weekend is ahead but the forecast calls for the chance of rain Saturday night, moving into Sunday.
