Light to moderate rain showers continue across the state. Recent precipitation has helped improve drought conditions. Iowa state climatologist Dr. Justin Glisan speaks to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, as well as provides a glimpse of what lies ahead.
“We are seeing recovery across eastern Iowa,” shares Dr. Justin Glisan. Drought conditions in western Iowa increased slightly.
?We did see good rainfall over eastern Iowa last weekend, (with) totals between five to eight inches. When you see totals like that in a drought area, you see recovery because that chips into the precipitation deficits we?re seeing,? Glisan says.
?In western Iowa, we?re seeing precipitation deficits in the eight to 12 inch range. We would need several events of widespread, gentle rainfalls to impact the severest conditions,” Glisan says. “The D3, extreme drought region expanded a little last week. (There was) not a huge expansion this week, in fact, a 0.03 percent increase in Monona County.”
Dr. Glisan notes, “The data cutoff for today’s Drought Monitor was 7 a.m. Tuesday, so any rainfall that fell after will be reflected in a depiction we see next week.” Moving forward, Glisan expects cooler, drier weather.
“If we look at our short-term, Climate Prediction Center six to 10, eight to 14 day outlooks, we do see warm temperatures into the weekend and then a cool signal. When you see that cooler than average signal this time of year, it’s tightly coupled to a drier signal,” Glisan says.
Glisan says, “It should be ideal weather to get into the field.”
?There should be a pretty substantial window of drier than normal conditions,” Glisan says. “This doesn?t tell us that we?re not going to get rainfall. It?s telling us to expect less rainfall than we would climatologically expect. Given the early planting window we had, if farmers see condition on the ground are perfect for getting in the fields, (they should) take that window,” Glisan says.
