Iowa State Climatologist Dr. Justin Glisan says the state received enough rains over the last week to keep drought conditions from worsening. Northwest Iowa remains the driest part of the state with several counties under D2 Severe Drought. Central and northeast Iowa continues to deal with D1 Moderate Drought, while a good portion of west-central Iowa is considered abnormally dry.

“Given that we’ve had a pattern shift from cooler and drier conditions that we had in April and early May to a more active storm track, we actually had enough rainfall across the state to keep us status quo,” said Glisan. “No improvement, no degradation, no expansion or contraction, so we’re about the same as we were last week.”

Nearly all of southern Iowa stretching east to west is in the clear from drought and dryness on the weekly report. Glisan says more rain is expected across the state the rest of this month.

“If we look at the short-term outlooks that get us into the first part of June and last part of May, we’re seeing a consistent signal that shows elevated chances of wetter than normal conditions across much of the Midwest including Iowa,” said Glisan. “That’s a welcome change from the initial outlooks that we saw for the first part of May where we were cooler and drier.”

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor can be viewed here.