(Area) Subsoil moisture levels will receive a minor boost from this week’s heavy snowfall.
Precipitation deficits over the last year have ranged from 8-12 inches throughout Southwest Iowa. State Climatologist Justin Glisan reports the melting of snow will help, but not as much as you might think. “This was that dry and fluffy type of snow. Typically the snow to liquid ratio is eight or ten to one. So the liquid equivalent for one inch of water you would need eight to ten inches of snow. So you don’t get a lot of moisture out of these systems unfortunately, but we’ll take any moisture we can get into the subsoil moving into spring.”
Last year at this time there were near record percentiles of subsoil moisture which held over through the growing season before things started to dry out in late spring/early summer. More precipitation is on the way according to the short term outlook. “We are still locked in a more active storm track. With a layer of snow on the ground that acts as an insulator so we don’t get a deeper frost depth if that snowpack exists. So we can get a little bit of melted snow infiltration into that topsoil. As we more into the growing season any of those precipitation events that come through will get deeper and deeper into those subsoil profiles.”
To paint the picture of just how significant of a snow event took place. The average of all reporting stations in the state received more snowfall in one day than Iowa normally gets for the entire month. “The statewide average snowfall for January is 4.7″. The preliminary estimates we have is anywhere from 5.5″ to 6.5″ over 24 hours. So to beat your average over 24 hours suggests a pretty substantial system moving through the state.”
Atlantic’s snowfall tallies show 1.3″ in October, 0.9″ in November, 10.2″ for December, and now 15.9″ in January for a total of 28.3″.
