IARN — Nearly all of the western half of Iowa is experiencing drought conditions, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor released on Thursday.
Hot and dry weather has certainly been the theme this summer for the state, something farmers and producers have been keeping a close eye on. Speaking with the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network via Zoom Thursday morning, State Climatologist Justin Glisan said the latest drought monitor data is the first time this year that parts of the state have been upgraded to a D2 level of intensity, or severe drought.
“Where we did see that degradation this week where D2 drought was introduced was in that west-central Iowa area, centered around Guthrie County and the counties surrounding,” Glisan said. “I did some field scouting two weeks ago out there and you could really tell that moisture stress was creeping in. Corn leaves were rolling, soybean leaves were flipping over, and we’ve started to see firing on those lower leaves in the corn. We know that moisture stress is there.”
“The drought monitor process works with data cutoff at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, so the map released Thursday is actually valid the prior Tuesday,” Glisan said. “That’s what we’ve pretty much had over the last 10 to 15 days is timely rains. Right when things start to look like they will tip over the edge, we get those rainfalls. Some gauges in those D2 regions had only a tenth of an inch. Further south and west, we were getting two-to-three inches. That will definitely help mitigate some of this crop stress we’re seeing, or we’ll see some improvement in the drought monitor map next week.”
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor report can be found here.
The full Zoom interview with Glisan can be viewed by visiting the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
