(Radio Iowa) – The year 2019 stands out for record precipitation and record flooding across Iowa and much of the region, according to Doug Kluck, the Central Region climate services director at the National Weather Service in Kansas City. Kluck says, “Across the Midwest and, to some degree, the Missouri River basin, the Midwest (states) have never seen a wetter year, in fact, they’ve never seen a wetter year — by far.”

Parts of Iowa saw more rainfall last year than ever before, as well as flooding that surpassed all previous recorded high water marks. The wet soil meant many Iowa farmers faced extreme difficulty with spring planting as well as the fall harvest. While there are predictions of a repeat in 2020, Kluck says he does NOT expect to see that mix of weather conditions again. “Just off the cuff, I would say the likelihood of that happening again is very, very low, to get close to that record or exceed it, for sure,” Kluck says. “But even if it is above normal, which is a whole bunch of other years, by the way, we’re going to have severe problems.”

He says the patterns that are developing show we’re clearly moving toward more precipitation and storm events. “The trend overall has been to be, on an annual basis, wetter than what we’ve had in the past, that’s the trend,” Kluck says. “It doesn’t mean we can’t go into drought, but the trend line is definitely on a pretty upward slope. It’s pretty obvious from the data that we collect.”

The first flood outlooks for the region released earlier this month predict major flooding is likely in most of the region’s river basins, including the Mississippi and Missouri.