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State climatologist says much more rain needed to bust the drought

Ag/Outdoor, News, Weather

September 11th, 2023 by Jim Field

Parts of Iowa got rain Sunday evening into today (Monday), but the state climatologist says the rain won’t put much of a dent in Iowa’s longstanding drought.  Justin Glisan says rainfall amounts ranged from on quarter to half an inch in the northern parts of the state, to an inch or more farther south.

Glisan says northeast Iowa just had its tenth-driest summer, and would need six-to-eight inches of rain above the average to make up for this year’s rainfall deficits.

Glisan says the current drought hasn’t been quite as bad as droughts in 2012 or 1988, because temperatures this summer was cooler overall than those two years.  Glisan made his comments on the Iowa Public Radio Program “River to River.”