The "Water Year" is a calendar convention that starts the year on 1 October. The reason being that the vast majority of precipitation that falls after that date during the actual calendar year goes toward the soil moisture reserves for the next calendar year's crop. Rewording, the present deluge of precipitation is doing no good for the crops yet in the field, but is recharging the soil moisture reserves that will be available next spring for the crop planted then. The featured chart presents water year accumulated precipitation for Des Moines and we are off to a very fast start with the accumulated total near the top of the observed range. More rain is falling today and there's another chance on Sunday, so the October total precipitation record may be in danger of being broken.

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