(Des Moines) Drought and near-drought conditions continue to expand across western Iowa, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday.
State Climatologist Dr. Justin Glisan says conditions have worsened from abnormally dry to moderate drought across all of Audubon, Cass, Crawford, Harrison, Montgomery and Shelby counties, along with most of Carroll County. Drought degradation has also spread into the northern two-thirds of Pottawattamie County and the western half of Adams County.
Glisan says the area classified as D1 Moderate Drought in southwest Iowa has grown significantly over the past week, from 14 percent one week ago to 23 percent now.
Glisan says the larger-scale weather pattern has remained stalled over western and southwestern Iowa, contributing to the worsening conditions. He says the larger-scale circulation in the western and southwestern portion of the state has been very stagnant. Features have stayed in place, and domes have developed and stayed in place over this region of the state. Glisan says the combination of hot and dry weather is also creating disease pressure for crops. For example, there appears to be the re-emergence of southern rust.
The latest drought monitor shows about 54 percent of Iowa remains drought-free, down from 64 percent one week ago. Glisan stated the weather phenomenon El Niño could be the strongest on record dating back to 1950.
As far as drought conditions, Dr. Glisan says that state and federal partners are responsible for collaborating and coordinating the drought monitor depiction. If you are seeing things on your own farms, such as cracks in the landscape, pineapple corn, soybean plants rolling over leaves in the middle of the day, or overall moisture stress on the crop. If the map is not reflecting drought stress in your area, send your observations to the State Climatologist Office by calling Dr. Glisan at 515-281-8981, or by Googling Iowa Climatology, or by contacting the National Weather Service or the U.S. Drought Monitor at the University of Nebraska. “Getting these on-the-ground indicators helps us produce a better map,” stated Glisan.
