‘Significant’ rainfall brings some drought relief

CEDAR RAPIDS — Substantial rain in Iowa has helped mitigate the state’s increasing drought conditions, with some parts of Southern Iowa now reporting no drought or dry conditions.

According to Thursday’s U.S. Drought Monitor report, 12.9 percent of the state remains in “severe drought” conditions and 50.4 percent is in a “moderate drought.” This marks a 37.9 percent drop in severe drought conditions.

“The rainfall amount and intensity were the perfect antidote for the drought across most of Iowa,” said Keith Schilling, the state geologist.

However, Tim Hall, the hydrology resources coordinator for the Iowa of Department of Natural Resources’ Land Quality Bureau, said the rainfall gives Iowa only partial relief.

“Despite the good rains over the last week, the state is still over 3 inches short of rain this fall, and only a bit ahead for the year,” Hall said. “Coming off of four years of significant drought, it will take a while to overcome the entrenched dry conditions.”

Hall said Iowa still needs several months of either normal or above-normal rainfall to achieve long-term relief. As an example, he said it was wetter than normal between October 2023 through August, but the dry September and October made drought conditions return quickly.

Over the past two weeks, most of Iowa received over 2 to 4 inches of rain, Schilling said. “The rains came rather slowly, so the water was able to infiltrate into the soils,” he said.

Since Oct. 30, Northeast and Central Eastern Iowa received a range of 2 to 4 1/2 inches of rainfall, said Tim Gross, a meteorologist with National Weather Service bureau in the Quad Cities.

Iowa’s pockets of no reported drought or dry conditions include Union, Ringgold, Decatur, Clarke, Madison, Warren, Polk, Jasper, Marion, Mahaska, Monroe and Poweshiek counties.

Cedar Rapids specifically received 4.42 inches of rainfall, Gross said, measured at the The Eastern Iowa Airport. Gross said these wetter trends will likely continue for now.

“We're looking at an active pattern for much of the month of November,” Gross said. “From a weather perspective, we will see periodic rounds of showers, chances of rain in the next two weeks that should help alleviate portions of the drought give some relief to the area.”

Gross anticipated “at least” another half-inch or inch and a quarter of rain coming in to Eastern Iowa within the next seven days.

The eased conditions come after drought conditions of various intensities had been slowly creeping back into Iowa.

Hall said the National Weather Service’s rainfall outlooks are encouraging.

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“Over the next month, precipitation in Iowa is projected to be above normal. … We are, however, moving into the driest time of the year, so the opportunities for significant rainfall are not as great as in other times of the year,” Hall said. “Drought conditions do not typically change much in the winter months, so the real key will be March and April of next year. If we get normal to above normal rainfall in those spring months we should be OK.”

Hall said the seasonal drought outlook calls for drought in parts of Eastern Iowa to “improve or even to be removed” before Jan. 31.

“The rains came at a crucial time this fall to start building back soil moisture reserves before winter and next spring,” Schilling said. “Summer crop transpiration followed by a month or more with no rain really left our soils dried out. Without the rainfall recharge this fall, soils would have been very dry starting out in the spring next year.”

But for future drought conditions, Schilling said there is uncertainty, since future climate conditions are difficult to predict.

“Late fall rainfall before frost is typically a time for groundwater recharge in Iowa so the recent dry fall is probably more of the climate anomaly compared to recent rains,” Schilling said. “If the rest of the fall returns to the mean, we should expect to see additional rains come our way and drought conditions be largely mitigated.”

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is 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; olivia.cohen@thegazette.com