Lincoln, Nebraska — The good news is there’s no actual “drought” in Iowa. But according to the US Drought Monitor at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, an area of “abnormally dry” conditions has risen in the state and has only grown since.
They say the area of abnormally dry conditions started to appear in the last week of August. While the Sheldon area is still over 13 inches above normal for year-to-date precip, the past few years, we have been below normal, and now it’s been a while since we’ve had a significant rainfall event. The most rain we’ve had in a day for the last month was August 29th, when we had about an inch and two-tenths. But we haven’t had any other rainfall events that totaled over an inch since the major flooding in June — and only one event since then in which we’ve seen more than a half an inch.
In our O’Brien, Sioux, Osceola, and Lyon counties area, the latest drought monitor report shows abnormally dry conditions in all of Osceola County, most of Lyon County except the south-central part of the county, roughly the northeast half of O’Brien County, and three of the four extreme corners of Sioux County — the northwest, northeast, and southwest corners — but most of Sioux County was rated as normal in the latest report.
As far as the rest of the state, the abnormally dry conditions cover most of northern and western Iowa with a bit elsewhere as well. About two-thirds of the counties in the state are abnormally dry.
