Storm clouds in central Iowa. (RI photo)
State climatologist Justin Glisan says August ended up wetter and warmer than normal. He says numerous storms push rainfall above average.
“We were about 4.6 inches across the state, and that’s about a half an inch above average,” Gisan says. He says the rain distribution varied widely across the state — with some of the driest areas seeing the most.
“If we look at the northern part of the state — anywhere from ten to 14 inches, with localized 15 to 20-inch rainfalls — especially over the last seven days,” Glisan says. “So we’ve really seen wetter conditions across the drought region, and then drier conditions across the southern part of the state.”
August averaged out a little warmer than normal. “We were about 73 degrees — and that was one-and-a-half degrees above average — preliminarily,” Glisan says. “Now we did have pockets in which we did see two to three degrees above average. Generally, warm across the state of Iowa and across the midwest.”
Glisan says the short-term outlook for September shows it could be a cooler and drier start to the month.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)