Northwest Iowa — The recent rain and damp weather have helped to erase open burning bans in the state. In fact, as of noon on Wednesday, November 6th, there are no active burning bans in the state.
Sioux and Lyon counties announced the lifting of their burning bans on Wednesday morning.
Even after the recent rain, conditions are still dry under the surface, to be sure. The latest drought monitor report still lists all of our counties as being in severe drought. Only 38 percent of northwest Iowa topsoil has adequate moisture. That is up significantly from a week ago, when it was only 21 percent, according to the weekly USDA crop report. It is important to remember that the data for both the Drought Monitor and the crop report were collected several days ago. The crop report data reflects the week ending November 3rd, and the data cutoff for Drought Monitor maps is each Tuesday, but the maps are released each Thursday. So as of Wednesday, the latest conditions depicted in the maps are over a week old.
A map of active burning bans and those that have been lifted can be found here.
