Drought conditions continue to expand across the state of Iowa.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday morning showed ?extreme? drought conditions (D3) have emerged in west-central Iowa. State Climatologist Justin Glisan says the impacted area was previously under D2 conditions, or severe drought. It?s the first extreme drought introduction in Iowa since July 17, 2018.
?The drought map from the U.S. Drought Monitor does show a pretty substantial degradation in that west-central Iowa D2 region as of last week,? Glisan said. ?This map is backdated to Tuesday. It shows that we do have an area of D3, or extreme drought, in that west-central corridor that covers parts of 12 counties.?
While all of southern Iowa stretching along the Missouri border doesn?t have any drought or dry conditions on the monitor, Glisan says drought and dryness expanded across other portions of the state in this week?s data.
?You can also see that we have had an expansion of D0 abnormal dryness up through the Iowa-Minnesota border,? Glisan said. ?So, we are seeing a wider spread dryness start to impact the Midwest. We?ve also had a little expansion of D1 eastward, as well as a little bit of the D2.?
Glisan adds the weather patterns over the last week didn?t do Iowa any favors.
?The storm track has been situated over the last week across southern Missouri, all the way over into the Ohio River Valley, and then into Indiana and Ohio,? Glisan said. ?We have had improve there, whereas (Iowa) has missed out on a lot of beneficial rains over the last seven days. So, we have seen that degradation in our drought conditions.?
Glisan made his comments during a live online webinar Thursday afternoon that was hosted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. You can view the latest U.S. Drought Monitor by clicking here.
