My area is showing as severe drought and my yard hasn't ever been as consistently green as it was this year (in 15 years of living at my current home). Had consistent rain all year, and quite a few soakers.
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My area shows moderate drought but when we did some work we hit water quick and tile lines were still running this fall.
The state is very dry. Go ask the communities, particularly out west, who are having water supply issues. Go check the stream gauges. We need a couple of wet years to recover.
That's nice, but I'm in an area listed as orange, and I can tell you we had a lot of rain this year and my yard never browned out for the first time in 15 years.
As much as you think your local anecdotal evidence applies to the whole state, trust me there is mountains worth of data collected all over the state that says otherwise. I'm not sure what you mean when you say you are in an area listed as "orange", but if you are talking about the stream gauges then what happens upstream is more important then conditions at the gauge location. The point of that is to show that streams all over the state are low, which is an indicator of long term drought.
The percentage is a likelihood of the temperatures being higher. It's saying that they are quite certain (70% - 80% certainty) that the temperatures will be above normal. It's not indicating how much above normal, just that it's quite likely to be above normal.
That map shows nothing for the north 40% of the state. All unranked basically.
I didn't read the header of the map and thought it was drought conditions.
I'm south of Des Moines, listed below in "severe drought", and there's no indication anywhere around my area that it is particularly dry.
| U.S. Drought Monitor
Yards (lawns) live on the top 4-6". This is in no way a reliable indicator of the 5-6' below that.
Check the Osceola water supply.I didn't read the header of the map and thought it was drought conditions.
I'm south of Des Moines, listed below in "severe drought", and there's no indication anywhere around my area that it is particularly dry.
| U.S. Drought Monitor
droughtmonitor.unl.edu
Osceola water supply down to 'a couple hundred days'
Osceola is facing a "severe" drought this year, and the city's primary water reservoir, West Lake, is drying up quickly.
I just find it strange that we've had other years where we were in a similar drought condition, and my yard was dead brown and had huge cracks in it. No idea how long of a timeline they keep tracking deficits though.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
Just have them come to eastern Iowa. All the creeks and rivers are very, very, very low - some of them nearly dry. I‘d say our drought condition category is accurate.
You have been able to walk across the Cedar most places all year. Same goes for the Iowa at least in Eastern Iowa.
Probably because the exact spot of your quarter acre lawn isn't representative of the amount of area the drought monitor is attempting to reflect. Rains have been extremely spotty the past couple of years. In many cases, a distance of a mile could be a difference of four to five inches annual rainfall pretty easily.
Most of the streams and smaller rivers south of Des Moines are nearly dry!I didn't read the header of the map and thought it was drought conditions.
I'm south of Des Moines, listed below in "severe drought", and there's no indication anywhere around my area that it is particularly dry.
| U.S. Drought Monitor
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Vegetation is a short term response to rainfall and local variability plays a part as well. Same with tile line flow. We have had below average rainfall totals for over 3 years now. That has significant long term impacts.
It's probability, not magnitude. 70% likelihood of above normal, below normal, etc.
