The latest Drought Monitor report shows improvement in most areas of the state thanks to above-normal precipitation in March.
The DNR’s Jessica Reese McIntyre says western, central and northwest Iowa got the most rain. She says northwest Iowa in particular had areas of severe drought.
“That was completely removed with the rain that fell, the precipitation that northwest Iowa saw, and so that’s very encouraging,” she say.
Mcintyre says there wasn’t much change in the southeast and southwest areas of the state. “They are just kind of floating along. There was a little bit of improvement in southwest Iowa, but for the most part, they are kind of holding to where they were,” McIntyre says. The eastern side of the state has the largest area of drought.
)”Unfortunately, northeast Iowa did not see a whole lot of improvement. They’re still in the d1 classification, which is moderate drought,” McIntyre says.
McIntyre says the overall picture is pretty good right now. “We are in a significantly better position than we were this time last year, as far as drought is concerned, because we didn’t bust out of that really long record drought until the end of May, early June,” she says. McIntyre says we are getting into our wettest months, and if that holds true this year, we could see more of the dry conditions go away.