Linn County endures driest conditions on record

More than three-fourths of Linn County is now engulfed in exceptional drought — the most severe drought condition — according to a Thursday U.S. Drought Monitor report.

This is the driest the county has been in the history of the U.S. Drought Monitor, which began in 2000. This is also the first year there has been exceptional drought in Eastern Iowa at all.

“There was a small bullseye around Tama County, and that has grown and extended into Linn County in the last three weeks,” said Matt Wilson, a senior service hydrologist with the National Weather Service Quad Cities Bureau. He visited Linn County recently, and noted, “It’s the worst drought in Eastern Iowa that I’ve seen this year.”

The average temperature in Cedar Rapids throughout September was 5 degrees higher than the historical norm, according to the National Weather Service Quad Cities bureau. The city received just over an inch of rain that month — 2.33 inches less than normal.

As of last week’s U.S. Drought Monitor report, all of Linn County was in extreme drought — the second most severe ranking.

Neighboring Benton County was half covered in exceptional drought last week. Now, exceptional drought blankets 99 percent of the county.

The swath represents the only patch of exceptional drought in Iowa and the Midwest at large. It currently makes up about 3 percent of Iowa’s land. Exceptional drought has historically been contained to central and west Iowa — not Eastern Iowa.

About a quarter of the state is still covered in severe drought, stretching from the northeast corner down to the southeast corner. Northeast Iowa, where exceptional drought plagued farmers and ranchers last month, has improved. The rest of the state is experiencing severe or moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions. None of Iowa is drought-free.

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Only time will tell how this year’s drought conditions will impact crop yields as harvest continues. As of Monday, 16 percent of the state’s corn had been harvested, along with 24 percent of the state’s soybeans.

Projections map normal chances of precipitation for Iowa throughout the rest of the year. While October may be a bit warmer than normal, temperatures throughout the rest of the year should hover around average.

“It should be a near average fall going into early winter,” Wilson said.

Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com