IARN — Drought conditions haven’t changed much week-to-week in Iowa; however, they continue to cover more than two-thirds of the state.
Iowa State Climatologist Dr. Justin Glisan explains that the U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday shows the northern half of Iowa continues to be the biggest area impacted by drought in the state.
“We had some improvement, and we had some degradation across the latest drought depiction,” said Glisan. “I would say the most significant improvement was in the north-central D3 extreme drought region where we had over the last 7 days – prior to 7 a.m. on Tuesday – pretty substantial rainfalls on the order of 2-3 inches and localized 4 inches. So, we did see one category improvement in that D3 region to D2, or that severe drought category.”
Glisan notes Iowa farmers have been pleased with off and on rain showers over the course of this week. He says that precipitation should show up in next week’s drought monitor, and he expects to see some drought improvement.
“I think this rainfall will be good for soybeans,” said Glisan. “It might be a little help for corn. As we’ve chatted week to week, we have seen timely rainfalls when we need them, given that we are approaching harvest. We are already seeing farmers chopping silage out there. Given the warm and dry conditions that we’ve seen basically through the growing season over parts of the state, harvest is going to start pretty fast in September and getting those combines out.”
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor depiction for Iowa can be viewed here.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
