The weekly US Drought Monitor update was released yesterday and showed continued worsening of the drought condition for Iowa. The featured chart presents a smoothed depiction of the weekly change in drought coverage and intensity over the state. A y-axis one unit height represents an effective area of the state changing one drought intensity category. The chart presents these changes since the year 2010 and generally the month of July does not see much improvement in drought. July is when drought stresses can really show up with increased temperatures and high water demand from rapidly growing agricultural crops. The present forecast does not hold much hope for rainfall over the coming week, but temperatures will be cooler.

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Tags:   usdm