Abnormally dry to drought conditions reported in 70 percent of Iowa.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 70 percent of Iowa is abnormally dry or in some form of drought.
A week ago, the report indicated about half of Iowa in those conditions.
The area of extreme drought has expanded as well.
“Drought has a way of kind of sneaking up on you,” he says, “one day you are not in a drought and then you wake up a week later and things are pretty dry.
“So you can really look at this as an extension of what’s been happening to our north and west.” Hall says it has been several years since any part of the state saw the extreme drought conditions now registered in southeast.
“If you happen to be in the middle of it — it’s pretty bad.
But on a statewide average it’s not nearly as severe as five years ago.” Hall keeps an eye on stream flows as another measure of the water situation in the state.
Hall says the northwest part of the state has gotten some rains that have helped them improve stream flows that had started to become a concern a month or two ago.
He says it would be nice to have some rain to boost those stream flows a little more, but the average rainfall totals drop off in each month now into fall and winter.