Yesterday's feature showed the 30, 90, and 365 trailing departures of precipitation for Iowa. Today's feature shows every daily departure to-date since 1 Jan 2011. The Iowa areal average is shown along with data for Ames and Sioux City. Our above average period currently takes us back to around the first of September before the deficits quickly add up. Over which period is the total deficit the most important? It depends on the application. For example, your lawn may only care about a couple week deficit as its roots are shallow and it lives on day to day rains. Trees have much deeper roots and are more sensitive to longer term droughts as the soil water is depreciated. There is still hope for more rain this week with thunderstorms likely and then another chance of snow!

Voting:
Good = 50
Bad = 9