Iowa (RI) — State Climatologist Justin Glisan says this winter is going to end up being in the top five in the weather record book for a lack of snow.
Glisten says the month of February will be in the record books for lack of snow or rain.
Glisan says the lack of snow is good if you don’t like to shovel, but it could have some impact later in the spring.
Glisan says February had some hot and cold spells that evened out.
Glisan says the warmth at the end of the month pulled February out of what had been a very cold run.
He says those troughs give us the up and down temperatures.
Glisan says we can expect to see that variability until we move out of spring.
Drought-wise, we really haven’t changed that much since the end of the last growing season in northwest Iowa, according to the Drought Monitor at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Most of the area remains in category D1, or moderate drought. Some areas of D2 or severe drought have been eliminated, but it has popped up in other areas. In mid-October in our four-county area, Lyon and Osceola counties were in severe drought. That has been erased, and now that area is in moderate drought. However, an area in southwestern Sioux County WAS in moderate drought, but has since been listed as severe drought. That area also goes into Plymouth County, covering about the western half of that county and the northwestern tip of Woodbury County.
