The weekly update to the US Drought Monitor was released yesterday and did not show much for improvement over Iowa, even with some recent and needed rainfall over the drought areas. For the driest areas of the state over northwestern and southeastern Iowa, the recent rainfalls have not made much of a dent in longer term dryness. The featured map presents IEM estimated percent of average precipitation for the year to date period. Much of the state is shown below 100%, which means a below average accumulation. The driest areas on this map align well with the current drought depiction. Chances of rain continue to be in the forecast, but so is much warmer weather. The limited very hot weather so far this season has helped to mitigate problems over the drought area, so an increase in temperature will likely start to show more impacts from the below average precipitation.

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