DES MOINES— Continued rains in early August have kept conditions favorable for most of the state, but a small pocket of moderate drought in and around Wayne County remains.
Stream flow conditions are above normal for the majority of the state. USGS crews have been making additional stream flow measurements as a result of rain events to validate real-time values, especially on Aug. 12, following heavy rains on Aug. 11 in eastern Iowa.
Over the last two weeks, the area of the state in some form of dryness or drought has been reduced by about one half. In the upper Midwest, the only remaining area of concern is in northeast Wyoming and western South Dakota, where a small pocket of Extreme Drought exists.
Overall, rainfall has been well above normal for four of the past six weeks in the state. About two-thirds of the rain over this past two week period fell on August 11 and 12, with two to four inch amounts common over a large area of central and east central Iowa.
For a thorough review of Iowa’s water resource trends, go to www.iowadnr.gov/watersummaryupdate.
The report is prepared by the technical staff from the Iowa DNR, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering and the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with The Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department and the National Weather Service.