AUDIO: Iowa Drought Update with Dr. Justin Glisan
This week?s widespread rain showers have helped improve drought conditions across Iowa.
State climatologist Dr. Justin Glisan explains that the U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday showed drought improvement all over the state.
?If you look across the southern three-quarters of the state, broad scale improvement and basically a one-category improvement,? said Glisan. ?What that means is if a location was in D1 Moderate Drought, it was upgraded to D0 Abnormally Dry, which isn?t drought but still seeing some precipitation deficits on the short term. Across southern Iowa where D0 was present, effectively it?s now gone across the southern two tier of counties. Pretty broad scale improvement. Just from last week, we?ve gone from broad scale D1 and D2 to a pretty significant drop off.?
Glisan says this week?s rain is helping rebound subsoil moisture profiles, which will benefit farmers for the 2022 growing season.
?The recent 7-10 days of rainfall we?ve had, you couldn?t ask for better conditions,? said Glisan. ?Of course, we still need more rainfall. We still have D1 and D2 across central and north-central Iowa where precipitation deficits going back a year or more are 8-12 inches, but I couldn?t ask for more ideal conditions than what we are seeing. People don?t like gloomy days, but these types of days put a smile on my face.?
Glisan says the U.S. Drought Monitor now shows D0-D2 conditions cover 61% of Iowa, with D1-D2 down to 35%. The latest drought monitor can be viewed here.
