April rains push Floyd County out of ‘extreme’ drought category

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

All but the tiniest sliver of southeast Floyd County has moved out of the bright red “extreme drought” category in the latest U.S. Drought Monitor Report map, released Thursday.

Almost all of the county is now in the next less severe category, “severe drought,” according to the service. The Charles City area received 4.7 inches of rain in April, a full inch and a half above the 100-year average of 3.2 inches during the month.

“We’re making progress, and the moisture we’ve received this month and last month, that’s helping the topsoil,” said ISU Extension Agronomist Terry Basol, who is based at the Northeast Iowa Demonstration Farm located just outside of Nashua.

“We have a long ways to go, but I’m cautiously optimistic, and ‘cautiously optimistic’ is a huge improvement over where I’ve been the last year or so,” Basol said.

About half of Chickasaw County, most of Bremer County and part of Winneshiek counties are still listed as “extreme drought,” as is most of Benton County and parts of Tama, Poweshiek and Iowa counties. Less than 3% of the state is in the “extreme drought” category as of the latest report.

Iowa’s drought status continues to decline as more seasonal rain amounts fall on most of the state. Almost a fourth of the state is now classified as no drought status.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” Basol said, with the planting effort shifting into high gear between the rain.

Farmers made steady progress on planting in the past week, according to the weekly Iowa Crop Progress and Condition report issued earlier this week.

Farmers in the northcentral district, which includes Floyd County, reached 49% of the corn planted, compared with just 10% the week before.

Soybeans are still slower, with 16% of the expected crop planted in the latest report, compared with 3% the week before.

Floyd County farmers are ahead of the state average for corn planting, but behind the state average for beans.

Recent rains have made dramatic improvement in the moisture conditions in the northcentral district. Topsoil moisture in this district in the latest report was rated as 77% adequate and 4% surplus, compared with 70% adequate and 2% surplus the previous week.

Subsoil moisture made even better progress, rated 57% adequate – the first time this year it has passed the 50% mark – and 3% surplus. That’s up from 31% adequate and 3% surplus the week before in the northcentral district.

With the recent frequent rains, Basol was asked if too much could become a problem, interfering with planting.

“We always talk about timely rains, I know that,” Basol said, “But they’re going to be critical this year. We’re off to a good start. Obviously, we have a long way to go to get out of this drought, but you have to start someplace, right?

“The key thing right now is to get a stretch where we can finish off planting, but I get the guys’ concern. If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” he said.

Along with the welcome rain, however, came severe weather in several locations in the state last weekend.

“Our hearts go out to the Iowans and communities that suffered damage caused by the severe weather over the weekend,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “With an active weather pattern continuing as we head into May, farmers will be eager to get back in the field when conditions are right.”

Justin Glisan, state climatologist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said several waves of severe thunderstorms spawned multiple strong tornadoes, causing significant damage across portions of western and central Iowa late in the reporting period.

“This active storm track also brought much needed rainfall across the drought region, along with reports of hail and high winds,” he said. “Unseasonably warm conditions persisted with positive departures of up to four degrees over southern Iowa.”

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