Des Moines, Iowa — This week’s Iowa Crop and Weather report from the USDA rates 60 percent of Iowa topsoil either short or very short of moisture.
Here in northwest Iowa, the situation is a little better with 50 percent of topsoil short or very short.
State Climatologist Justin Glisan says abnormally dry conditions have expanded in the past two weeks.
By last Thursday, 99 percent of the state reached some stage of drought or has been abnormally dry for 30 to 60 days according to the USDA’s Iowa Drought Monitor. Glisan says it appears surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean are rising and that means a change in the weather pattern for thunderstorms that form over the ocean and later sweep into Iowa.
Weather models indicate the swing into the wetter pattern could arrive in Iowa by July, according to Glisan, just when corn and soybeans hit a major stage in development.
Glisan made his comments during a recent appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS. According to the USDA, the development of Iowa’s soybean crop is nine days ahead of normal and the corn crop is a week ahead of last year.
