The featured chart presents a time series of soil water totals and daily changes as estimated by three point readings at 12, 24 and 50 inch depths. The plot is for the ISU AEA Farm just west of Ames. The present value is very dry with a volumetric value near 10%, which likely indicates that most all free water in this layer has been scoured. The bottom plot shows the day to day change in this soil layer's soil moisture value with the impact of rains readily apparent. There has been very little soil water recharge since about the first of June as rain events have been scarce and any small rains are absorbed by the shallower soil layers not covered by this analysis. Thankfully, Iowa's top soils are deep and crop roots can go down amazing depths to look for water. Even so, the lack of rain this growing season will be a negative to crop yields over much of the state.

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