Drought descends on Iowa despite the wet spring

Drought conditions are continuing to spread in Iowa, despite this year starting as the ninth wettest year on record after an unusually rainy spring.

“If we hadn’t received the rainfall recharge earlier this year, conditions would be exceedingly worse,” said Keith Schilling, a state geologist and the director of the State Geographical Survey.

It’s been 34 days since Cedar Rapids received measurable rainfall, the third longest stretch in the fall the city has experienced since 1892 when state record-keeping began.

Statewide, “severe drought” conditions increased 8.5 percent in Iowa in the past week, including a swath of northeast Iowa, partially driven by low moisture and humidity levels, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday.

At this point, almost all of Iowa is experiencing some level of abnormally dry or drought conditions. Only a handful of Iowa counties in southern Iowa — Page, Taylor, Ringgold, Decatur and Wayne — are free of dry conditions.

In addition, the National Weather Service on Thursday issued a red flag warning, signaling increased fire danger.

September was the driest September in Iowa in 52 years. But even with that, 2024 still ranks around the 30th wettest year on record in Iowa.

How did drought conditions creep back into Iowa after the state had such a wet spring?

Like ‘clockwork’

Schilling said it’s like “clockwork.”

“The soil moisture conditions are like a clock that continually needs to be rewound to keep from slowing down or stopping,” he said. “The rain earlier this year reset the clock and filled the soil moisture system. But crop water use during the summer and the lack of rain this late summer and fall are causing drought conditions to emerge again.”

In a normal year, Iowa would have had enough rainfall this fall to reset the soil moisture conditions before heading into winter, Schilling said.

“Any level of low-level drought occurring now began only a couple of months ago instead of several years ago, so we are in a much better place than would have been if (spring) rainfall had not occurred.”

Dry October

Justin Glisan, state climatologist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said the state experienced only 10 percent of its typical precipitation in the first half of October.

Looking at the year as a whole, Iowa has had about 30.5 total inches of precipitation, about 5 inches under the state’s annual average, with two-and-a-half months left in 2024.

“That just shows you how wet and how dry last year was,” Glisan said.

Cedar Rapids went without rain 55 days in the fall of 1952, the record, he said.

“Throughout the remainder of October, coming in November, it’s a pretty critical time for us to try to get some moisture down into that soil profile,” said Joshua Michel, an Iowa State University Extension and Outreach field agronomist for northeast Iowa. “Otherwise, our soils most likely will be on the drier side when we come around into spring,”

Michel said northeast and Eastern Iowa has fallen to “anywhere from 2-1/2 to 3 inches below normal (rainfall) or more” in the past 30 days. In the past 60 days, precipitation is anywhere from 4=1/2 to 6 inches below normal or more.

Given that “pretty significant deficit,” he said he wasn’t surprised to see drought conditions expanding in this week’s drought monitor.

He anticipates a slow, continued expansion of drought conditions across the state. Looking ahead, however, Michel said he does not anticipate “extreme” and “exceptional” drought coming to Iowa.

Glisan, the state climatologist, said Iowa’s climate conditions, including drought statistics, go back to 1895.

If Iowa receives rain in late October and into November and December, drought conditions will improve.

“But if the rain stopped completely, and this is all we got, it would be the 55th driest year,” he said of 2024.

Fighting drought

When it comes to Iowa’s current conditions, Glisan said, a “drought is a drought,” but Iowans can do a few things to conserve water, even though water scarcity, as of now, is not on his radar.

For example, landowners with irrigation systems can water their lawns or plants in the evening, since water evaporates faster during the day with warmer temperatures.

Homeowners also should check their faucets and pipes to make sure water isn’t leaking from them.

Despite about 50 percent of the state’s harvest being completed, Michel said it’s important that farmers and their helpers clean and maintain farm machinery and equipment to help mitigate the risk of fires.

A good way to do this, he said, is by taking a power washer, using compressed air or even a leaf blower at the end of the day to clean out machinery’s air filters. He also recommends workers check their coolant and oil levels and remove any material that may be wrapped around any belts, chains or moving parts on the machine.

“Everything creates an enormous amount of heat, especially when you have these very high winds and low humidity levels,” he said. “All it takes is some leaf material, plant residue or some dry chaff getting caught somewhere, and it has the ability to warm up and start smoldering,” Michel said. “It’s not going to be very hard for that to take off, and all of a sudden, you have a problem on your hands.”

Breaking down the drought monitor

The U.S. Drought Monitor categorizes drought conditions as:

The drought monitor has broken down the historically observed impacts of the five drought categories. They list the impacts as:

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; olivia.cohen@thegazette.com