Heavy rains could push state to first normal rainfall month since October

With the heavy rain overnight and this morning, many areas of the state may actually come out having a normal month for rainfall, according to state climatologist Harry Hillaker.April will likely end up with about three-and-one-quarter inches of rain for a statewide average, which is very close to normal. Hillaker says it’d be the first “normal” month Iowa’s had for precipitation since October. Some western parts of the state got too much of a good thing. Hillaker says the Little Sioux area of Harrison County got more than four inches of rain overnight. That’s a lot of rain and Hillaker says the concern is soil erosion as there’s no crop canopy to protect the ground now. Parts of central Iowa got hail overnight and this morning, with some stones measuring up to one-inch in diameter.