(Radio Iowa) – Even with today’s (Monday) heavy snow across a wide portion of Iowa, the soil is frozen and when this snow melts, it’ll likely run off and not be absorbed into the soil. Weather experts are predicting continued drought conditions for the region, with the troubles spreading across Iowa’s western third. Illinois state climatologist Trent Ford moderated the North-Central Region Climate update for the National Weather Service.

“Most areas from the Central Plains westward are still dealing with drought issues,” Ford says. “Forty-five percent of this entire area is in moderate drought or worse. Some places in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and parts of northwestern Iowa are still dealing with severe to extreme or exceptional drought.” Ford says the dry conditions started early last fall and they’ll continue well into the spring planting season.

“Because of that dry 2020 and the carryover to 2021, we’re still dealing with drought conditions,” Ford says. “Given the mild temperatures for winter so far and the fact that nobody is pushing the record books for precipitation, we really haven’t seen much improvement.” Ford says the outlooks don’t offer much relief and many Iowa farmers could be facing critical problems in just a few months.

“This big block of brown here that we’re showing from western Iowa all the way through California, that is the area where the highest likelihood is drought persistence,” Ford says. “Drought is currently present there, at least moderate drought if not worse, and the prediction is the highest probability of drought persistence, at least through the end of April.” Soil moisture is also depleted across much of the region after several years of above-normal precipitation and record or near-record flooding.