The US Drought Monitor has an area of abnormally dry and moderate drought analyzed in Western Iowa. This area has mostly missed the rainfall events in the past few months and is starting to show some agricultural impacts. The remants of Hurricane Gustav are providing rainfall in Eastern Iowa this morning and will slowly push off to the east.

Voting:
Good = 25
Bad = 4

Tags:   drought  

The featured plot highlights the change in the National Drought Monitor classification for the past 5 months. You can see that for the most part, last fall and winter has not been wet enough to recover from accumulated dryness in the state. The catch 22 is that a wet spring could erase some of these rainfall deficits, but would also delay spring planting due to wet fields. We will just have to be thankful for whatever rainfall we get this spring.

Voting:
Good = 27
Bad = 16

Tags:   drought  

This weeks's drought monitor update continues to depict dry conditions over the entire state save Northcentral and Northwest Iowa. This time of year dryness is a good thing, since most farmers are looking to harvest the corns and need dry fields. The catch is that fall season rainfall can help to recharge moisture depleted soil preparing for the next growing season.

Voting:
Good = 15
Bad = 8

Tags:   drought