Large Area of Iowa in Extreme Drought.

[somecyguy]

Cedar is still extremely low but approaching average I believe. It doubled from 2' to 4'. Marshes, wetlands and backwaters are still dry/not connected. I heard a rumor of someone fly fishing the roller dam in CR over the winter because you could just wade out.

There is a man made pond off 30th street drive that I use as an indicator because he lined it with black tarp before filling it. When ever I see the edges of the black tarp, I know it's very dry. Right now it's still probably 2 feet short of covering the tarp.

 

[somecyguy]

The aquifers are more important and that takes years of soaking through.

Not to completely off-track this thread, but supposedly there are many farmers in Nebraska who run their pivots non-stop for months due to lack of rain. I can't comprehend how much water gets pulled from the Ogalalla each planting season.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Not to completely off-track this thread, but supposedly there are many farmers in Nebraska who run their pivots non-stop for months due to lack of rain. I can't comprehend how much water gets pulled from the Ogalalla each planting season.

Nebraska charges Wyoming for water. Crazyness out there.

 

[StateThrowdown]

Not to completely off-track this thread, but supposedly there are many farmers in Nebraska who run their pivots non-stop for months due to lack of rain. I can't comprehend how much water gets pulled from the Ogalalla each planting season.

I don't feel like people talk about this enough. Parts of the western midwest will be in an enormous world of hurt if the Ogalalla goes dry.

 

[BCClone]

Well your county is right on the margins and has shown a lot of improvement since the start of the year so I wouldn't be surprised to see it drop out soon. I'm not sure what would be keeping your area listed as drought impacted. It could be deep soil moisture measurements or data from shallow aquifers that shows those are still below normal in that area. Those are long term impacts that are going to be difficult for the average person to notice. You'd have to ask the folks in Lincoln who put it together, but I promise they have some reason to keep that area as drought impacted. Plus, as much as they try to be accurate, it's not an exact science and you can't expect the margins of drought affected areas to be exactly accurate.

This isn’t an overnight thing. If you have watched these maps over the last 20+ years, you notice they are quick to list but are stubborn to pull things off.

People were saying that 2012 and 1987 would be long term hits, yet they were rectified with spring rains basically. 2013 would have been another 1993 if we hadn’t went into it as dry as we did. These things seem to cycle around every 20-25 years.

It seems they don’t take the ground makeup into factor. The ground in my area will hold moisture much longer than the ground south of Cedar Rapids and Ames. It is much sandier in those regions. At this point, the NW corner should still be a concern but my area is wanting to get rid of water. One of the main rivers north of us runs north, but it seems they want to determine everything off the Iowa river which doesn’t account for the blue earth.

 

[NorthCyd]

This isn’t an overnight thing. If you have watched these maps over the last 20+ years, you notice they are quick to list but are stubborn to pull things off.

People were saying that 2012 and 1987 would be long term hits, yet they were rectified with spring rains basically. 2013 would have been another 1993 if we hadn’t went into it as dry as we did. These things seem to cycle around every 20-25 years.

It seems they don’t take the ground makeup into factor. The ground in my area will hold moisture much longer than the ground south of Cedar Rapids and Ames. It is much sandier in those regions. At this point, the NW corner should still be a concern but my area is wanting to get rid of water. One of the main rivers north of us runs north, but it seems they want to determine everything off the Iowa river which doesn’t account for the blue earth.

I have been looking at drought monitor maps for the better part of 2 decades for my job, so I am quite familiar with them. I have been on conference calls with the drought center in Lincoln to discuss the methodologies they use to put together the drought monitor map. Trust me, they and the local experts they consult to put together the drought monitor map are very aware of the different landform regions and soil types that exist in Iowa. You seem convinced these people have no clue what they are doing and I'm not going to try and talk you out of it any more. Believe what you want.

Yes things go in cycles and we will eventually get out of this drought, hopefully this year. No "people" did not talk about the 2012 drought the same as this one, at least not in my profession. Very different situations. The direction the Blue Earth river flows is of zero consequence to this discussion.

 

[Letterkenny]

Yeah I figured we still had a ways to go, you aren't going to solve a multi-year drought in 2 weeks unless things go the other way. But man this has to be helping.

Feels like the word "drought" is used too liberally. When I, and I'm guessing most people hear "drought", they think of cracked baron dirt, brown and dying plants everywhere, dust bowls, etc.... not just below normal rainfall over a period of time resulting in still mostly green and maybe some yellowish plants and crops that just grow a little slower and yield a little less.

 

[NWICY]

Feels like the word "drought" is used too liberally. When I, and I'm guessing most people hear "drought", they think of cracked baron dirt, brown and dying plants everywhere, dust bowls, etc.... not just below normal rainfall over a period of time resulting in still mostly green and maybe some yellowish plants and crops that just grow a little slower and yield a little less.

In my area it has definitely been drought. ponds and creeks either very low or dry, pastures done by July for the most part, this is the 1st time in 3 yrs I've seen water in the fields after a rain. But I'm not going to argue too much about it.

 

[cowboycurtis]

Not to completely off-track this thread, but supposedly there are many farmers in Nebraska who run their pivots non-stop for months due to lack of rain. I can't comprehend how much water gets pulled from the Ogalalla each planting season.

Go look at google maps in Western Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Anything green doesn’t belong there. I lived out there for a year and it’s not quite hell, but you can see it from there. 29 days in a row it was over 100. If those pivots shut down at all the crop is dead. Pivots run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The amount of water used has to be some number I haven’t heard of.

 

[NorthCyd]

Feels like the word "drought" is used too liberally. When I, and I'm guessing most people hear "drought", they think of cracked baron dirt, brown and dying plants everywhere, dust bowls, etc.... not just below normal rainfall over a period of time resulting in still mostly green and maybe some yellowish plants and crops that just grow a little slower and yield a little less.

It's a misunderstanding of the different types of impacts droughts have. Most people really only notice the short term impacts, especially in an agricultural state like Iowa. So when we have heavy rainfall events and drainage ditches and small tribs and streams flash and get bank full people think problems solved. They don't realize how little of that water actually makes it's way into the ground. Water in the ground doesn't get recharged from a wet month. That's not how it works. If the rain stops for a couple of weeks to a month those same streams and tribs that were bank full will go right back to historically low levels because the groundwater hasn't recovered and base flow conditions are crap.