Iowa now has around two-thirds of the state in some sort of dry pattern running from the northwest to the southeast corner. The Iowa D-N-R’s Tim Hall says the state is in a little better shape than the last time we had widespread drought conditions in 2012. He says we went into that year with very little reserve in groundwater after a dry 2011. “At least in 2016 we crossed over into 2017 after a really wet fall and early winter. So, things are not as dramatically bad this year — primarily because we started the year in much better shape,” Hall explains.

He says that is not a reason to dismiss what’s happening now. “In general, there’s a lot of folks in the state that need to be paying attention to the soil moisture conditions and the groundwater condition, and being aware that things are pretty dry,” Hall says. Hall says we have been well behind normal July rainfall totals in parts of the state and relief isn’t expected anytime soon. “There doesn’t appear to be a real significant chance for broad rains over the next couple of weeks,” Hall says. “So a couple of dry weeks, some really hot temperatures, the vegetation is pretty active and it tends to pull a lot of moisture out of the soil as it grows. So, the pieces are in place for things to get certainly not better over the next couple of weeks — and certainly perhaps deteriorate even more.”

South-central Iowa has been the driest part of the state thus far, but Hall says northwest Iowa has the fewest options for drawing groundwater, and they need to keep an eye on the conditions.

(Radio Iowa)