The term "Flash Drought" has been receiving a fair bit of press coverage lately as some parts of the Midwest and Great Plains have turned dry and hot this June. The combination of climatological max precipitation accumulation with dry weather, highest solar radiation, warming soils and developing crops can combine to quickly turn marginally wet springs into significant moisture deficits that cause plant stress to appear. Such is the case over parts of Iowa that have missed out on recent June rainfalls. The featured chart presents data for Red Oak (far SW Iowa). The chart combines trailing 30, 91 and 180 day precipitation departures along with analyzed US Drought Monitor category at the time. The recent few weeks have seen a quick nose dive of all three precipitation metrics and will likely receive close attention with the weekly Drought Monitor update due on Thursday.

Voting:
Good = 11
Bad = 0