Concerns increase as drought remains unrelieved in Charles City area

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Some parts of Iowa received a season’s worth of rain last week, but Floyd County was not one of them.

While about 8½ inches of rain fell in western Iowa in the Little Sioux area about 40 miles north of Omaha, Charles City received only 0.83 inches of rain over Saturday and Sunday, and that was the first measurable precipitation for the month of August so far.

It’s a situation that is causing concern among farmers and agribusiness people.

“When you see the leaves flipped over that’s when you know the plants are saying, ‘Hey, I need a drink of water,’” said Terry Basol, the ISU Extension agronomist stationed in Nashua, after a recent drive by a soybean field.

The fields throughout the Charles City area could use a nice, long drink as the drought that has plagued much of the state this summer continues.

“They’re hanging in there,” Basol said of the area’s corn and soybeans. “But there’s a reason the guys and people like me are concerned. It’s dry. Too dry.”

The issue this growing season is that rain has been, at best, spotty, and the area in and around Charles City has seen numerous rain clouds pass by without dropping a drop.

“It’s frustrating,” Basol said. “It just seems like every time we’re going to get some rain, it goes this way, that way, and never our way.

“Like I said, the crop is hanging in there pretty well right now, but especially with soils that are lighter and sandier, we’re getting to a point where it’s becoming critical,” Basol said. “There’s still time to have a good crop, but rain’s a must and, honestly, it can’t just be a one-time deal, either.”

Since January, Charles City has received less than half its normal precipitation amount.

According to the National Weather Service, by Aug. 10 Charles City would have received in an average year more than two feet of precipitation – 24.22 inches. This year since January the area has received only 11.06 inches as of Thursday.

While the first four months of the year started out with above normal precipitation in Charles City, the spigot has been turned off since May.

Some parts of the state experienced an “unseasonable wet pattern” that brought several waves of showers and thunderstorms through Iowa, according to Justin Glisan, the state climatologist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

But the eastern Iowa area missed out on much of the rainfall and also experienced temperatures a couple of degrees above normal.

The weekly drought report issued Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska shows the southeast quarter of Floyd County and about the southern half of Chickasaw County are classified as “severe drought,” with the rest of these counties rated as moderate drought.

The central parts of the state and patches on the borders in the north, south and eastern part of the state are in the best shape, but even those are listed as “abnormally dry.”

This week’s drought report map is nearly identical to last week’s except for slight improvements in some western areas that experienced the most rain over the weekend.

According to this week’s Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report, less than a quarter of the cropland in the northcentral district that includes Floyd County had adequate topsoil moisture, while 53% was rated short and 23% very short. Only 21% of the subsoil moisture in the district was rated adequate, and 56% was rated short and 23% rated very short.

The crop report said that 100% of the corn in the northcentral district was silking and 51% was at the corn kernel dough stage.

Ninety-seven percent of soybeans were blooming and 75% were setting pods, the report said.

— Bob Fenske of the Nashua Reporter and New Hampton Tribune contributed to this report.